COVID-19 – UPDATE - INFORMATION ABOUT OUR RESPONSE
Effective 9 p.m. Saturday, March 21, 2020, all funeral homes are operating under a newly issued Executive Order!
This requires the immediate cooperation of our licensed funeral directors and involves difficult conversations that without delay should be had with next-of-kin—conceivably altering arrangements currently under our care.
In order to curtail community-spread and provide for adequate social distancing, all residents are ordered to remain in their residences and not gather publicly. All public funeral gatherings, viewings or ceremonies, therefore, should not be conducted in any funeral home, place of worship, cemetery or crematory until further notice. Only immediate family are permitted to privately identify, participate in a non-public viewing and/or abbreviated service and witness the final disposition (if the individual cemetery or crematory permits).
There are no embalming or final disposition method restrictions in place at this time. Burial, cremation, entombment, and donation are all permissible. No deceased can be stored or held for future memorialization. Again, removal, preparation, and disposition should take place in the most timely and efficient manner possible with all public memorial events, ceremony and services postponed until this order is lifted. We will continue to creatively assist our families through their grief that has been compounded by these necessary restrictions.
Funeral home staff may continue to operate under this order and next-of-kin, those not subject to quarantine may make arrangements either in the funeral home or at their residence. Please understand that we are at the start of a new norm, a norm estimated to last eight weeks, and so we do not fully know when the true surge of COVID-19 spread will be felt in each of our lives.
Funeral homes are beginning to personally feel the physical and emotional strain of staff illness and absenteeism. By focusing on arrangements, non-public gathering of the immediate family and disposition, some logistical concerns may be temporarily met. Because the primary concern remains with the living, not the dead, we will continue to routinely disinfect and sanitize all public and common areas.
Please keep in your prayers those who are affected by this, as well as all the front-line responders, including funeral directors and their staff, as we work hard to ensure a sense of calmness during these troubling times.
Below is a link to the CDC for up-to-date information.
We are available to address your concerns. PLEASE CALL US AT 908-245-6800.
*** Please Note: As updates are happening frequently, your local and/or state public health officials may be issuing guidance or recommendations that are more stringent than what the CDC has recommended. In these cases, you should defer to your state and/or local public health officials.
