'Death Doesn't Just Stop': How Funeral Homes are Coping with COVID-19

'Death Doesn't Just Stop':

How Funeral Homes are Coping With COVID-19

Looming shortage of personal protective equipment top of mind for funeral directors.

The funeral home chapel may be desolate, but the phone is still ringing.

Mortality is no stranger during a pandemic, but COVID-19 is bringing complications for businesses that deal with death.

“Death doesn’t just stop. It’s not like we’re a service that can’t continue,” said David

Root, the general manager at Pierson’s Funeral Service in Calgary.

Funeral homes are listed as an essential service in Alberta. That comes with a host of new challenges as they struggle to adapt to increasing demand and fewer resources.

In Alberta, health inspectors don’t routinely review funeral homes. Instead, inspections happen on a complaint basis. (Scary Side of Earth/ Flickr/ Creative Commons)

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Alberta’s COVID-19 death toll of 72 remains comparatively low. Independent of the pandemic, funeral homes say they are experiencing a busy quarter and that will only intensify as virus-related deaths grow.

Many homes in Calgary have split their staff into groups for safety. They work in rotating shifts so that if an infection brings down one crew, the facility can continue to operate with the other. It’s not a perfect strategy.

“You only have half the amount of people to do the same amount of work that you normally would,” Root said. But there’s a larger problem occupying him.

“The biggest concern we have is how do we protect ourselves from contracting the coronavirus,” Root said.

He’s already held the funeral of someone who died of it in a continuing care home.

They’re taking extra precautions. The staff at Pierson’s have started wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, gowns, face shields and masks.

But there’s a looming shortage.