• Your local and/or state public health officials may be making recommendations for the care of decedents and/or public gatherings that are more stringent than what the CDC and federal government have recommended. In these cases, you should defer to your state and/or local public health officials.
• The CDC has advised if you think you have been exposed to COVID-19 and/or develop a fever and symptoms, such as cough or difficulty breathing, call your healthcare provider for medical advice. If you are concerned about a potential exposure, this risk assessment for healthcare personnel (HCP) from the CDC may be useful.

As the country has begun to re-open and we transition to a new normal, the CDC has issued updated guidance for public gatherings titled "Considerations for Events and Gatherings." This updated guidance emphasizes that "Event planners and officials can determine, in collaboration with state and local health officials, whether and how to implement these considerations, making adjustments to meet the unique needs and circumstances of the local community. Because COVID-19 virus circulation varies in communities, these considerations are meant to supplement—not replace—any state, local, territorial, or tribal health and safety laws, rules, and regulations with which gatherings must comply. Organizers should continue to assess, based on current conditions, whether to postpone, cancel, or significantly reduce the number of attendees for gatherings."

The guidance also emphasizes the importance of health habits such as discouraging people who are ill from attending public gatherings, promoting social distancing and encouraging hand hygiene. 

We strongly encourage you to adhere to whatever public gathering guidelines that have been put in place by your state and local public health officials. 

Read the guidance.

As a funeral director, you are committed to helping families honor their loved ones in meaningful ways, while ensuring the safety of their family and friends. If federal, state or local guidance limits the size of public gatherings, there are alternatives you can offer: 

• Have a private viewing for only immediate family and/or close friends.
• Delay the funeral and hold it at a later date. Discuss options for final disposition if you choose this option.
• Have a private viewing for only immediate family and/or close friends and have a large memorial service for all family and friends at a later date.
• Discuss options for webcasting the funeral so others can view from home (see webcasting information below for additional information)
• If a family is able to proceed with a small service, please be sure to advise them of CDC guidance, such as: encouraging those who are ill and or at-risk (e.g., elderly, immune-compromised) should be encouraged to stay home; and following healthy habits such as social distancing, hand hygiene, covering cough and sneezes, etc.

Resources

• CDC: Funeral Guidance for Individuals and Families
• FEMA: COVID-19 Best Practice Information: Alternate Funeral Arrangements - NFDA contributed to the development of this piece, which outlines funeral options and best practices that have been successfully implemented in funeral homes throughout the country
• CDC: Frequently Asked Questions: Funeral and Burial Services for American Indians and Alaska Natives
• Graveside Service Recommendations from the National Concrete Burial Vault Association (May 21) - As states begin revising their executive orders and slowly lifting restrictions, our colleagues at the National Concrete Burial Vault Association have adjusted their graveside service equipment recommendations. The NCVBA reminds you that you should comply with all state and local mandates when setting up graveside services. You can find the updated guidance here.

Bottom line: You know your business and its capabilities best and should determine what options you are able to offer families while following recommended federal state and local guidance on public gatherings. 

A series of discussions from the Association for Death Education & Counseling (video discussion):

• Grief, Bereavement, and Death at a Distance: Perspectives on The Impact to the Community
• Best Practices in Grief and Bereavement Tele-therapy
• Grief, Loss of the Assumptive World and Meaning-Making
• COVID-19 and Complicated Grief
• Pandemic, Grief, Loss and Suicidality
• COVID-19: Perspectives from Past Presidents
• COVID-19 and Non-Death Loss
• Grief, Bereavement, and Death at a Distance: International Perspectives on the Impact to Worldwide Communities
• Losses Facing Children and Adolescents, Delivery of Services & Coping
• Grief & Resilience: Coping with Uncertainty and the Power of Positive Thinking
• Learning About Restorative Retelling and Resilience in the Face of Loss 
• COVID-19 and Artful Grief
• COVID-19 and the Centennial of the Spanish Flu Epidemic
• Clinical Considerations around Perinatal Loss
• COVID-19 and the Importance of Grief Leadership
• Mindfulness in Uncertain Times

Religious Funeral Customs

To provide the best service to culturally diverse groups, you must be well acquainted with their expectations as consumers and with the variety of funeral customs and practices they honor. NFDA has compiled information for some of the most common religious traditions in the United States. For further insight, consult clergy members from a particular group or other resources in your community that are aligned with diverse groups. 

Find Religious Funeral Customs Here

CDC Guidance on Death Certificates

• NEW (July 28, 2020): FAQs for Medicolegal Death Investigators
• NVSS COVID-19 Formal Reporting Guidance, includes a link to the Guidance for Certifying Deaths Due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19)
• Webinar entitled "Guidance for Certifying Deaths Due to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)" hosted by CDC COCA program provides detail on guidance. 
• Video: Certifying Deaths Due to Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) - CDC National Center for Health Statistics
• Other guidance and trainings -- https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/training-and-instructional-materials.htm, including: 
  • Guidelines for Reporting Occupation and Industry on Death Certificates
  • Funeral Director’s Handbook: Death Registration and Fetal Death Reporting, includes information on reporting age, sex, race and ethnicity, education, and occupation and industry
• General guidance for filling out cause of death on death certificates, including:
  • Improving Cause of Death Reporting: Online Training Module, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/training/improving_cause_of_death_reporting/
  • Cause of Death Mobile App, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mobile-app.htm
• Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Death Data, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/covid-19.htm) from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
• From the CDC, Understanding the Numbers: Provisional Death Counts and COVID-19

During these challenging times, when federal, state and local guidance and/or mandates are limiting the size of visitations and funerals, webcasting or live-streaming a funeral can be an excellent way for those who cannot be physically present at a service to still partake in the event.

NFDA offers a webcasting license that covers the copyrighted music in the ASCAP, BMI and SESAC catalogs. It covers services broadcast via funeral webcasting software, as well as other live-streaming platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Zoom, Vimeo and Skype.

If you do not currently have a NFDA funeral webcasting license, click here for more information and to purchase one

Watch "Live-streaming During the Pandemic," a recording of a discussion NFDA hosted on Facebook about live-streaming funerals.

Note: NFDA does not endorse these companies. This list is simply being provided for the convenience of funeral professionals.

Webcasting Businesses

Technology Recommendations for live-streaming from Dell, part of the NFDA Discount Advantage Program (special member pricing available). If you have questions or need assistance ordering, please contact: Sidney Duckworth, Dell - US Small Business, Sidney_Duckworth@Dell.com, 512-513-0231  

• Vostro 15 3590 Laptop
• XPS 13 7390 Laptop
• Poly Voyager Legend UC - Headset - in-ear - over-the-ear mount - Bluetooth - wireless
• Dell USB-C Mobile Adapter - DA300
• Logitech C270 HD Webcam

Zoom Security Concerns: There have been new reports of livestreams on the Zoom platform being hacked (the so-called Zoom Bombing). Click here for an article with security tips for livestreams on Zoom.  

NFDA offers sample legal forms that give authorization for funeral homes to webcast funeral services and direction to record funeral services.

Download the Complete Legal Packet for Streaming or Posting Recorded Funeral Services

NFDA Recommendation: Do Not Use Facebook or YouTube to Livestream Funerals or to Post Recordings of Funerals

Facebook and YouTube have entered into lawsuit settlements with music companies that prevent them from allowing some copyrighted music to be played over their systems. The blocking and muting is done by algorithms. Even though a member has a webcasting license to stream the music in their funeral over the web, Facebook and YouTube will mute it. If the user continues to stream the copyrighted music over their systems, eventually they will block the user from using the system. 

NFDA worked on this issue several weeks ago and was unable to get Facebook to engineer a change. They claimed they were precluded from doing so because of the prior settlement agreements. NFDA recommends members use their own websites, or other streaming tools such as Zoom, Vimeo, or other commercial services, which do not have these copyright issues, to stream funerals.NFDA has been notified of the “muting” problem that funeral homes are experiencing when streaming funerals over Facebook.  We have been in contact with a BMI representative who explains that several years ago Facebook entered into agreements with song producers to resolve copyright infringement claims.  These agreements require Facebook to mute streamings that are broadcast over the Facebook platform if the streaming includes music belonging to the songwriters.  He further explained that BMI, ASCAP and SESAC are not parties to these agreements and have no way to modify them.  In addition, Facebook cannot modify them unilaterally. So, unfortunately, there is no way to solve the muting problems with Facebook.

In addition to webcasting vendors (find a list here), here are a few articles with alternatives for livestreaming: 

• Best video conferencing software in 2020: paid and free solutions for business
• Top 10 Zoom alternatives for video conferencing
• The 6 Best Free Video Conferencing Apps

Ultimately, funeral homes have to determine how they will best balance the important guidance they are receiving from federal, state and local public health officials with the needs of their families. The CDC offers recommendations on how to keep the public safe during public gatherings. 

Some specific things that you may want to consider to keep you, your staff and your client families safe:

• Encouraging people who are ill or who are part of an at-risk population (e.g., the elderly, immune-compromised, etc.) to stay home.
• Reminding families how to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as by practicing social distancing, washing your hands, and covering coughs and sneezes.
• Posting informational flyers from the CDC about healthy habits, such as “How to Stop The Spread of Germs,” you can post in your funeral home.
• Keeping soap dispensers filled in public (and employee) restrooms. The CDC has several informational flyers on handwashing you can post in public and staff restrooms.
• Offering alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol to guests (and employees).
• Having extra tissues and waste baskets on hand.
• Using extra precautions with the register book, a high-touch area that could be a potential source for contamination. 
  • Put hand sanitizer next to the register book with a sign encouraging its use before signing. The sign could say something like: We kindly request you be mindful of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) situation and the health and safety of everyone here today. Please use the hand sanitizer provided before signing the register book.
  • Suggest the family designate one individual to stand at the register book to record the names of individuals as they come in.
  • Urge people to sign the guest book online using a mobile device; consider creating a QR code to take guests directly to the guest book (free online QR code generators - like this one - are readily available online) 
• Scaling back direct contact with families and guests (e.g., handshakes, hugs, etc.)
• Keeping the front door open (weather permitting) or ensuring a staff person is always available to open a door during visitations and services to prevent people from touching the door knob

As a business open to the public, it’s important that you and your staff be vigilant about cleaning, especially after services or arrangement conferences. The CDC offers guidance for businesses – including recommendations on cleaning products – on cleaning facilities open to the public.

You know your business operations best and, with your staff, can develop a plan to action to help families commemorate the life of their loved ones in a safe manner that is consistent with federal, state and local guidance.