El Paso Mayor Dee Margo is thanking the Texas National Guard for providing assistance with the city's "fatality management plan" as they deal with more than 300 deaths due to COVID-19.
There has been a rise in COVID-19 deaths since October and a total of 853 since the pandemic began.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego in a letter to Texas Governor Abbott asked for help enforcing the county's 10pm to 5am curfew. He said that the county mortuaries were also being overwhelmed.
As of Friday, Samaniego said 234 bodies were being held at the main morgue and at nine mobile morgues.
The Texas National Guard has sent a 36-member team to help.
The situation has prompted the county to offer morgue workers $27 dollars an hour, and to even pay jail inmates to move bodies.