Freezer lorries that were used to store the bodies of coronavirus victims in the US will be cleaned and used to transport food again.
Bodily fluids and blood would have leaked inside some of the trucks, but according to recommendations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) they can still be converted to their original use.
The reports says explains that despite the vehicles being used to store dead bodies they can return to delivering food "under certain circumstances."
It states: "During the Covid-19 pandemic, additional refrigerated storage is needed for human remains.
"Therefore, refrigerated food transport vehicles and refrigerated food storage units ordinarily used for food preservation may be temporarily used to preserve human remains.
"When additional refrigerated storage is no longer needed, industry may wish to return the trailers and storage units to use for food transport and storage.
"Refrigerated food transport vehicles and refrigerated food storage units used for the temporary preservation of human remains during the coronavirus pandemic subsequently can be safely used for food transport and food storage under certain circumstances.
"The floors, walls, ceilings and other hard, non-porous surfaces on the interiors of refrigerated food transport vehicles and refrigerated food storage units are generally designed to be easily cleaned."
The report says trucks should be cleaned and disinfected to reduce the risk of the killer bug contaminating the food.
However they recommend that the vehicles are not cleaned with compressed air or water sprays.
Any lorries that have had a spillage of bodily fluids or blood should not be used for hauling food its interiors are damaged or it cannot be cleaned.
They will also be withdrawn from service if it has an "offensive" smell which cannot be eliminated through the cleaning process.
Workers cleaning the lorries will need to wear "appropriate PPE to prevent exposure to the chemicals".
Last month around 60 decomposing bodies were reportedly found in the back of unrefrigerated trucks and on the floor of a funeral home on New York after neighbours complained of a foul smell.
Police officers found two U-Haul trucks piled high with rotting bodies outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services in Utica Avenue, Flatlands, Brooklyn
A video shows bodies on top of each other without shelving in a truck's trailer.
A nearby shop owner is understood to have reported the vehicles after smelling a strong odour and seeing what appeared to be blood leaking out onto the street.
John DiPietro, who owns a nearby property, told the New York Post : “You don’t respect the dead that way.
"That could have been my father, my brother."
However, the funeral director told Eyewitness News no bodies were being kept in U-Haul trucks, claiming they were packed with furniture to make room inside the home for the bodies.
