COVID-19 has changed public gatherings across the world, including those related to mourning the death of a loved one. At your funeral home or mausoleum, people gather to share memories and to linger in spiritual and social communion with one another. These activities reaffirm life, but these days, thanks to COVID-19, can also carry deadly risk.
As the COVID-19 virus continues to mutate, new variants will present different types of spread pathways and levels of contagion. That means the virus is a moving target when it comes to minimizing spread, so we have to stay nimble. Although state and local guidelines vary, some basic best practices exist for maximizing safety where the bereaved gather in your funeral home or mausoleum.
Here are seven tips for COVID-19 safety in your mausoleum or funeral home:
1. Offer face coverings and hand sanitizer at every entrance and on every side table. If you have specific policies, make pleasantly worded signage obvious.
Remember to place hand sanitizer next to the register and pen, where service attendees sign their names. Consult your state and local municipality for requirements regarding face coverings in group settings; regardless of regulations, having these items present can make folks more comfortable.
2. Organize movable furniture into smaller groups.
Grieving people will naturally cluster together; you can minimize the size of those clusters while still permitting folks the comfort they require by making your furniture groupings smaller in seating number. The key is to ensure that guests feel welcome and comforted to the degree possible while maintaining safety. Your facility may wish to shift its furniture-placement strategy over the course of the pandemic.
3. Control traffic flow to avoid cross-traffic.
Consider establishing clear one-way entry and exit paths through the facility, if possible, to minimize contamination.
4. Add overflow spaces for seating.
Spreading people out into more than one space can inhibit the spread of the virus, especially when a service is well-attended.
5. Add a Zoom or other online group meeting link to your service features.
This detail makes an enormous difference to the overall accessibility of the service. Offering a virtual meeting link ensures that everyone who wishes can attend a service, regardless of their immune status, vaccination status, or social-comfort level. With a virtual meeting link, attendees can participate in their own homes, from the parking lot as the wait to join the cortege for the graveside portion, or from any other socially distanced or geographically remote location.
6. Wipe down interior and exterior surfaces frequently.
COVID-19 has not yet been found to be most highly transmissible via surfaces, but future variants could be more so. Every chair, every piece of furniture, should be sprayed or wiped down after a service. It goes without saying that lavatories should be cleaned extremely frequently.
7. Encourage officiants and service participants to prepare their comments beforehand and keep them brief.
Alternatively, hold the longer portions of the service outside. The less time speaking in an enclosed space, the better.
