LAST UPDATE | 10 Mar 2020

HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE said measures recommended by the Irish Association of Funeral Directors (IAFD) in relation to funerals of those who die from Covid-19 are “not necessary”. 

Reported in the Irish Times and Irish Independent today and seen by TheJournal.ie, the advice from the IAFD was to postpone funeral services for victims of Covid-19, not to embalm the body, and to bury or cremate the deceased promptly.

It advised that relatives of the deceased should not attend undertakers’ offices or funeral homes, transport for the deceased’s families should not be provided, and funeral instructions should be taken over the phone.

At a briefing this evening in which health officials revealed there are a further ten confirmed cases of Covid-19, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said these measures recommended by the IAFD are “not necessary”.

Dr John Cuddihy, Director of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) also said general guidance on this issue is being updated and will be on the centre’s website tomorrow. He said the HPSC has been in touch with the Irish Association of Funeral Direcors to let them know the guidance will be available.

“I would think that the measures described are not necessary and when we produce the guidelines tomorrow that will be evidence,” he added. 

‘Uncomfortable reading’

Funeral home directors are being advised to notify the Dublin City Coroner if someone who has Covid-19 has died, or to check with their local coroner if the same rule applies to them. 

A spokesperson for IAFD said: “We have issued a guidance policy to our members in the unfortunate event that they may have to arrange a funeral for a victim of coronavirus.”

Whilst this policy may make for uncomfortable reading it was not our intention to alarm the public or be insensitive to the trauma that loved ones may face should a member of their family die from the disease.

“We will continue to monitor advice from the government and although the health and safety of our members is paramount, we would assure the public that should any of our members be required to arrange a funeral, under these unprecedented circumstances, they will do so with the utmost respect and professionalism for the deceased and their bereaved family.”

Speaking on RTÉ’s Sean O’Rourke programme, Dublin undertaker Keith Massey said that the advice was being “very cautious”.

“The way that Irish funerals occur is very quickly after deaths, [so the concern is that] the virus will stay with the deceased until several days afterwards,” he said.

He said that when someone passes away, “often air is trapped in the lungs”. “So when you move someone, that may come out,” he said. “We’re not sure for how long the virus stays in the lungs for.” 

The risk of cross-section with funeral home staff “is quite high”, he added, and that this advice was to “cut out the contact between the deceased and the living”. 

The main real source of when the deceased is collected. Embalmers wear full protective gear, we we’re fairly ok with that once the deceased is in an airtight bag and placed into a coffin, therefore that ceases any chance of cross infection. 

He said that on not providing transport to the family members of those who are deceased, he said that “the problem is that you don’t know you have the infection”.

“They get into a car, and if you’re in a close environment, you would spread the infection. What they’re saying is the people who are in limousines are usually in close contact with the deceased, it’s close family.”

Massey, who is a funeral director at Rom Massey & Sons, a Dublin based funeral home, said that this was the advice given by the representative body the Irish Association of Funeral Directors.

He acknowledged that they were being “very over-cautious,” but added: