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The intensity of the pandemic continues to worsen, with the rising COVID-19 death toll overwhelming funeral homes and causing state officials to send refrigerated trucks across California to hold corpses.

The National Guard has been called to Los Angeles County to help with the temporary storage of bodies at the county medical examiner-coroner’s office, relieving pressure on hospital morgues and private mortuaries that have run out of storage space for bodies.

Deaths from COVID-19 have been spiking both in L.A. County and the rest of California. Earlier this week, L.A. County exceeded 11,000 COVID-19 deaths. Officials warned of dark weeks ahead amid a post-Christmas surge that is expected to put pressure on already overwhelmed hospitals.

There have been, on average, 183 deaths reported each day over the last week, and nearly 1,600 deaths have been recorded since Dec. 30.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.