Funeral homes want to know when someone died of COVID-19

The president of the North Carolina Board of Funeral Service sent a letter Thursday to Gov. Roy Cooper asking him to change a rule he says puts funeral board members and their employees in danger. Specifically, the board wants to know when someone died of COVID-19.

"Why would these professional funeral service workers not be entitled to know the cause of death in a time of public health crisis when such knowledge could literally mean the difference between life and death?" Phillip Mark Blake wrote in the letter.

The board, he wrote, has petitioned the North Carolina Commission for Public Health to add COVID-19 to the list of infectious diseases which are disclosed to funeral service personnel.

According to a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, federal law currently permits, but does not require, hospitals to share COVID-19 status with funeral home staff.

"Adding COVID-19 to the listing in the Commission's administrative rule would surely help in the mitigation and control of the virus through the disclosure of cause of death to funeral service workers who would then know exactly what measures to employ to protect themselves, their coworkers and their families from COVID-19," Blake wrote.

The funeral board heard from a UNC Rex Healthcare representative and from staff at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner that the state had instructed them not to tell funeral workers when someone was suspected to have died of COVID-19.

"This instruction is alarming and troubling," Blake wrote.

He wrote that, without the information, funeral workers would have to assume every body was exposed to COVID-19 and, to protect themselves, use more stringent protocols, "creating additional strain on a limited supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)."