Funeral home fears running out of space

A major funeral home in the Corporate Area has sounded a warning that it could soon run out of space to store bodies because more and more persons are opting not to bury their loved ones due to restrictions imposed by the Government to contain the outbreak of COVID-19.

Joseph Cornwall, managing director of the House of Tranquility Funeral Home in Kingston, fears an imminent pile up of bodies as a result of fewer funerals being held.

"People are dying, some from the COVID-19 virus, murder, old age, cancers and other diseases. However, since the Government announced the new measures as it relates to gathering, where no more than 10 persons ... mourners and police presence at the cemeteries and burial parks, our numbers have been drastically reduced," he said.

Cornwal says bereaved families are adopting a wait-and-see attitude, hoping that things will return to normalcy soon.

House of Tranquility Funeral Home is contracted to the Ministry of National Security to provide morgue services, which means it is responsible to collect and store bodies to be autopsied.

Morgue storage

"We have recently expanded our morgue storage facility and as a result, we are able to handle and store more bodies. However, if we do not bury some of these bodies with alacrity, we could find ourselves with a storage problem as a body cannot be buried without a burial order issued by the Jamaica Constabulary Force," he said.

"If burials are not resumed in short order, the country could face a serious pile up of bodies," he stressed.

But while House of Tranquility is having a problem, Calvin Lyn, managing director of Lyn's Funeral Home in Mandeville, Manchester, told THE WEEKEND STAR that their realities are different. He said that they advise clients to bury loved ones as soon as possible

"The folks here are more understanding. Since the uncertainty is there about this coronavirus, they are having the funerals. We have been having funerals almost every day ... some will go to the church for a short service and some will go straight to graveside," Lyn said.