DESPITE a recent spike in deaths from Covid-19 across the region, authorities have confirmed there are no plans to reopen a temporary mortuary and hospitals will be tasked with coping with the increase.

When the Covid-19 pandemic took hold last year, a temporary mortuary was set up at Chelmer Park and Ride in Chelmsford to deal with excess deaths from coronavirus across the county.

Essex County Council allocated £10 million to run the mortuary, which was managed by the The Essex Resilience Forum but it closed down in the summer without ever having been used. Specialist disaster recovery firm Kenyon International built the space and was ready to run it if needed.

One of the joint chairs of the forum (a multi-agency partnership, made up of local councils including Thurrock, emergency services, health providers, the voluntary sector and many more organisations) Essex Police Chief Constable BJ Harrington, said in the summer: "The combined work across greater Essex from those working in the NHS, in care homes and as carers, has meant that this county has not seen the worst possible impact of this dreadful disease coming to pass so this means the necessary preparations at the Chelmer Valley Park and Ride site have not been needed."

A temporary mortuary was also constructed in March in the main car park of the South Essex Crematorium at Corbets Tey to serve London boroughs. It was taken down in august.

Data shows that 36 people died in Essex hospitals from Covid-19 between November 11, 2020 and January 5, 2021. Nine of those were in Basildon and Thurrock, seven in Mid Essex Hospital and East Suffolk and North Essex hospitals, one in Essex Partnership Hospitals, six in Southend Hospital and Princess Alexandra in Harlow.

In the seven days to December 31 – the latest date for which complete data is available – there were 15,474 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Essex.

Thurrock currently has a total of 13,561 cases of Covid confirmed and the borough's tally of covid related deaths is 241. The most recent seven day period for new confirmed cases, up to 6 January shows 2,337 confirmed cases, a drop of 127 from the previous week.

Thurrock's latest summary of cases per 100,000 in the borough is 1,340. The average area in England had 534.