Covid 19 Updates For Funeral Services 2021
During this covid pandemic, the virus is rapidly evolving. It has been spreading to different countries and some countries have their own “version” of covid such as delta covid from India and lambda from South America. Due to various versions of covid, we are expecting more vaccines to be injected. If this virus keeps changing its form, the pandemic will not end as the virus would start to get immune to the vaccines and more vaccines would be made to contain this virus. We strongly hope that everyone should stay home and do not go out unnecessarily and everyone should book their slots when the vaccine is available for their age group in Singapore to protect themselves and their family.
We have been following closely and following the rules and regulations issued by National Environment Agency (NEA). There are several measures that have been implementing to uphold the funeral venue and funeral ceremony safety.
Transiting Towards Covid Resilience Starting From 10 August 2021
- During any point in time, 30 pax are only allowed to be at the funeral venue
- Mandatory safe distancing of 1 meter apart between each table, limitation of 5 chairs per table
- Foods, drinks, titbits are not allowed to serve to guests at any point in time
- Food may be consumed only by the family, guests will not be allowed to consume
- Singing, dancing, and playing of any form of wind instruments are restricted
- Religious leaders such as monks, priests, etc shall maintain 1 meter apart from family and guests at all time
Extra Measures Provided by SK Funeral Group
- Trace-Together QR Code
- Temperature Machine
- Hand Sanitizer
- Daily Sanitizing For Mobile Toliet
- No Setup of Flower Basin at Crematorium
- Common Rituals Items Will Not Be Shared
- Avoid Close Contact
- “ART KITS” Will Be Provided If Necessary
- Good Hygiene to Be Conduct by All Funeral Staff
More measures will be implemented without further notice.
Singapore Funeral Services during Covid Period As of [10 August 2021]
- For families and friends that are attending the funeral including foot, the procession will have to keep at a cap of 30 person maximum of lesser at any point of time during the funeral
- For Burials and cremation, maximum attendees shall be kept not more than 20 people and NEA will be issuing 30 entry tickets for each cremation hall booked or burial application at managing facilities by the government.
- Religious leaders, funeral crew, and people who are involved in conducting instrumental music shall be kept in a minimum capacity.
- It is mandatory for everyone that is attending the funeral to wear a mask at all times and they should not be mixing between different groups. Please ensure that 1 meter of safe distance is been maintained between individuals and groups.
- Interaction from attendees in a funeral venue shall leave the venue immediately right after the event. There shall be no buffet, food, and drinks provided to the attendees.
- Individually packed food or drink may be supplied to the families of the deceased but will have to consume the food at the premises yet shouldn’t interact with other attendees and meals shall consume away from the attendees.
- Live Instrumental music other than the instrument that needs wind shall be allowed in funeral venues and will have to wear a mask at all times during the entire performance. They will not be able to join in the foot procession. No dancer, singer, and variety act should be conduct in the funeral venue or crematorium at all times.
- Hearses such as musical band or displaying any form of contingent on foot including vehicles for banners are not allowed.
- Religious leaders and funeral staff will be required to wear a face mask during their speeches or chanting session at the funeral venue and social distancing of one meter should be the distance between each other and using of just face shields only without masks will no longer be allowed until further notice.
- Screening of temperature is mandatory for anyone that is entering the funeral venue regardless of HDB Void Deck or Funeral Parlour and for those that are unwell upon reaching shall not enter the venue.
- Checking in using SafeEntry is a must for both funeral venue and funeral parlors with hall, as of 17 May 2021 Tracetogether only safe entry check-in is required for funeral parlors and all visitors must perform TT-only Check-In, via TraceTogether app or token to enable contact tracing.
- As of 19 April 2021, all funeral parlors with halls have to deploy SafeEntry Gateway as another additional option for SafeEntry checking-in method.
- Vulnerable individuals such as the elderly are strongly discourage to attend funeral events to protect their health and considering other solutions for them to attend the funeral such as video calling or live streaming the entire event.
- Funeral Crews are strongly encouraged to administer antigen kits and they can be purchase at places such as pharmacies. A family member may also consider performing self-testing if they want to ease their mind. For more knowledge on ART self-testing kits, do visit https://moh.gov.sg/covid-19/selftestart.