Worldwide there is a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) available. Generally PPE will go to hospitals first, since they are dealing with those living with the virus, but will this leave funeral home employees at risk?
Governments around the world are scrounging for goggles, face shields, gloves and coveralls. Bidding wars and scams are raising PPE prices and the market is now getting flooded with unqualified PPE equipment, leaving health care and funeral workers in harm’s way.
Charlie Duke, the president of the Lorain County (Ohio) Funeral Directors Association recently expressed his concern on this developing issue. Stating that it’s close to impossible to order and receive certain PPE gear at the moment and some of the funeral directors are struggling with low PPE supplies. All funeral homes connected to his association are working closely together, to make sure that if one of the funeral home’s runs out of stock they will be able to back each other up.
The Nation Association for Funeral Directors (NAFD) published that certain funeral homes located in coronavirus hotspots will be running out of PPE by this week. The organisation urged governors, across all 50 states, when allocating PPE to make sure that funeral workers are included as a priority group who will receive PPE supplies, so they will be able to continue performing their critical work.