INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE: COVID-19 carry out a funeral have increased. We seem past our second wave now and restrictions will be eased shortly, but this second wave has taught us there may well be a third or a fourth, as we learn to live longer term with this virus. --Adrian Nelson Arlington Memorial Chapels & Crematory – Quezon City, Philippines As of Sept. 24, the Philippines has close to 300,000 infections, 60,000 of which are still active hospital confinements; over 5,000 people from all over the Philippines have died from coronavirus-related causes. Our funeral home has handled over 500 COVID19 deaths in the last six months and all of them were cremated per the guidelines set forth by our Health Department. We are only allowed to embalm bodies after the hospital or coroner’s office issues a non-COVID-19 certification. This has brought down our burial case ratio from 48% in 2019 to 15% as of August. I guess we were just fortunate that we had been operating our own crematory since 2009, otherwise we would probably be out of business by now. We also handle cremation for other mortuaries who do not have their own retort. We are able to cremate a maximum of 12 bodies per day between our two retorts. We continue to take all sanitary precautions and observe very strict guidelines in our visitation facilities. We have limited seating to 50% capacity by spacing our chapel seats 2 meters (6.5 feet) apart. Temperature checks and wash stations have been set up at the main doors of our facility. Face masks and shields are mandatory upon entering our premises. We have had to livestream via Zoom most of our religious services due to the limited space in the viewing chapels and the availability of clergy. With God’s grace we have not had any serious infection among our staff except for one outsourced accounting personnel who had to self-quarantine due to symptoms after attending a family gathering. He has since tested negative and been allowed to return to work. We did retire all our staff members who are 60 years old or older as government guidelines prohibit them from leaving their homes except for essential trips. We promised them part-time opportunities when times are better. I continue to work remotely as Bettina and I serve as the “designated survivors” in case of an outbreak in the office. --Raffy Jose PMR Post Mortem Restituo Sweden AB – Malmoe, Sweden The pandemic has opened the door for funeral homes to show, among other things, our digital capability. Worldwide the funeral business is a “slow changer,” but suddenly we were “allowed” to implement high tech to better serve our families. When limitations were put in place on the number of guests, it took less than a week for the first funeral service livestream to take place and it soon became extremely valuable. We have to remember that very few in Sweden are familiar with a recorded remembrance video on DVD. It was also a potential legal matter because of music rights and the European rules of integrity, known as GDPR. These streams, though, paired with a recorded video will remain even after the pandemic, in my belief. Virtually all memorial services were cancelled early-on in the pandemic. Now, many deceased are first cremated and then have a ceremony with the urn; many still choose not to have any ceremony at all. We have also seen outdoor ceremonies become popular, mostly in bigger cities. Most of our embalming cases are connected with repatriation. When regulations close any option for shipping remains, the embalming numbers diminish. Overall, it has been challenging for funeral homes to be prepared for an increase in cases only to have many request very few services be provided. The standards of handling the preparation have also changed, like indications and directives for autopsy. One day we were told we should wear high-risk PPE and use double bodybags, but the next round of government guidance said there was “no risk at all” to our workers. These confusing directives together with an equipment shortage was, and remains, a stress factor. Overall, the funeral industry in Sweden has had the www.ogr.org | The Independent® 17
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