Funeral Homes Prep For Pandemic Bump

Local funeral homes are scaling back memorial services, stepping up cleaning routines, closely counting protective equipment supplies, and seeking out increased refrigeration capacity as they brace for a potential increase in business because of a potential wave of coronavirus-related mortalities.

On Sunday, Gov. Ned Lamont and the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) announced that funeral homes, crematoriums, and cemeteries qualify as ​“essential” services that are exempt from the governor’s latest emergency executive order.

That order mandates that all ​“non-essential” businesses shut their doors and end nearly all in-person work interactions starting Monday at 8 p.m.

In a series of phone interviews Monday morning and early afternoon, New Haven funeral home directors Howard K. Hill and Bill Iovanne and local funeral home assistant director Eddie Gist all applauded the governor for allowing their work to continue amidst the pandemic.

They said they’ve already had to significantly adjust their day-to-day operations to best protect their staff and customers and to accommodate the various local and state emergency orders designed to stem the spread of the respiratory disease caused by the infectious novel coronavirus.

“The focus right now is on the spread of the virus,” Connecticut Funeral Directors Association President Alexander Scott told the Independent Monday. ​“Crowd mitigation and a lack of personal, direct contact with other people is something we’re really stressing.”

And the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has set up a new coronavirus section to its website, providing links to federal resources and guidelines for funeral directors to use as they respond to this public health crisis.

“The funeral directors in Connecticut are an important part of the State’s response to the pandemic,” state Chief Medical Examiner James Gill told the Independent by email. ​“The OCME and Hospitals count on them immensely. Their prompt and efficient services are key to maintaining the proper and timely final disposition of remains.” 

As of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, the United States has 46,548 confirmed cases of Covid-19, and has experienced 592 related deaths. According to Gov. Ned Lamont’s email update Monday night, Connecticut has 415 positive cases statewide, including 54 people who have been hospitalized, and 10 deaths.

“We’re Anticipating”

“We’re doing as much as we can to adapt to the challenging times right now,” said Hill (pictured), who runs Howard K. Hill Funeral Services at 1287 Chapel St. ​“We are here to continue to serve and honor life as we normally would do. However, we do need to change the way we operate.”

Those changes include reducing in-person gatherings for funerals and memorial services first to 50 people or less in response to the governor’s order early last week, and now to 10 people or less in response to Mayor Justin Elicker’s subsequent order issued last Thursday.

Hill said that his company has been using a video live stream ​“to allow for folks to participate in the final rites ceremony” so that the bereaved can practice social distancing and do not have to be physically in the same room together as they mourn.

He also said that he has blown up and prominently posted in his Chapel Street office a list of recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about social distancing, not shaking hands, frequently washing one’s hands with soap and water, using hand sanitizer, and other strategies for limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Hill said that his staff have added to their daily routine a variety of intensive cleaning measures, including sanitizing and disinfecting doorknobs, desks, phones, handrails, and other frequently touched surfaces.

And he said that he hopes the governor’s recent designation of funeral homes as ​“essential services” means they will have access to more personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves, since his funeral home staffers will continue to need to go into homes and retrieve and remove bodies of the deceased as the pandemic continues.

“Because of the Covid-19 challenge, we’re going to be burning through a lot of our PPE,” he said.

“We are contemplating that,” Hill said when asked about a potential increase in deaths due to the virus outbreak. ​“We are taking it one day at a time.

“But truthfully, we’re anticipating. With the governor’s announcement that funeral homes and crematoriums are part of the essential response team, it actually should help us because we do need access to PPE just as the hospitals do.”

“We Are Refining This Plan Daily”

“We are adapting,” said Bill Iovanne (pictured), who runs Iovanne Funeral Home at 11 Wooster Pl..

He said his business is now only allowing no more than 10 people at a time inside the funeral home. He said they held several services last week and early this week where private visitation was open to family only. ​“Basically services have been shortened with social distancing rules” applied, he said.

“It’s more challenging on families than it is on us,” said Iovanne. ​“A lot of these funerals have been prearranged,” and families have had to seriously revise their expectations for what a memorial service can look as the pandemic has spread.

“We’re only able to give them part of that now,” he said. ​“Hopefully when we get through all this, we’ll be doing a lot of memorial services and a lot of celebrations of life.”

Every time that a family leaves after visiting the funeral home, he said, ​“we begin a disinfection of our arrangement office.” And after the home conducts a private funeral visitation, ​“we do a disinfection of our entire funeral home.”

He said his staff are required to wear gloves, masks, and goggles when they remove bodies from the hospital or from hospice care at home.

“There’s more time invested in each funeral” because of the pandemic, he said. ​“It is time very well spent.”

When asked about how his business is preparing for a potential increase in deaths in town, Iovanne said, ​“We do have a plan should this increase exponentially. Public safety being our number one concern, and proper care for the deceased.”

He said his company and other members of the state funeral directors association are ​“looking at increased storage capabilities.”

“Should the death rate increase exponentially, we’re ready with refrigeration capabilities,” he said. ​“We’ve spoken to crematorium operators.

“We are refining this plan daily.”

“Just Give Them The Elbow”

And Eddie Gist (pictured), an assistant director at McClam Funeral Home at 95 Dixwell Ave., said that the business he works for has quickly adapted to hosting smaller services. He said they so far have held several funerals with 50 or less attendees.

“It went very well,” he said.

When asked about preparing for an increase in mortalities, Gist said he is not too concerned right now. ​“Everybody’s panicking,” he said. ​“But it’s not too bad right now.

“They’ve just got to follow the rules and regulations.”

That means washing one’s hands with soap and water frequently, he said.

And no handshakes allowed. When people get close to one another at his funeral home, he said, staff encourage people to ​“just give them the elbow” instead of shaking hands or hugging.

“People just have to follow the rules and regulations.”