Knox & Son Ltd update on Coronavirus – July 2020

July 7, 2020
Knox & Son Ltd update on Coronavirus

The situation around the Coronavirus pandemic is changing rapidly. To date, we’re continuing to look after families and arrange funerals to the best of our ability, this page contains some guidance on what’s changing. As Government advice on Coronavirus (also called COVID-19) changes, we’ll update this page with the latest guidance.
We are taking every possible step to ensure that funerals go ahead, whilst complying with the guidance put in place by our local council, Churches, Crematoria and Cemeteries. Our top priority is the health and wellbeing of our families, colleagues and communities, as well as respecting the dignity of the deceased.
We’ve put measures in place while we learn more about how Coronavirus may affect the service we offer to the families in our care. However, we do need your help, co-operation and understanding.
Please do not come into our premises, but call us instead if you’ve:

• returned from any foreign country in the past 14 days,
• been in contact with someone with confirmed or suspected coronavirus,
• been showing the following symptoms in the past 14 days: a persistent cough, high temperature, a shortness of breath

We’ll advise on what you need to do and how we can best support you if someone has died with Coronavirus.

We’ll continue to look after loved ones in our care in a respectful and sensitive way. We’re well prepared to take care of people who have died with Coronavirus in line with the official guidance we have received. We have the equipment, systems and processes to ensure the dignity of the deceased is respected at all times.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to offer our embalming service to anyone that has died with Coronavirus.
We’ll also be unable to take their fingerprints for silver fingerprints jewellery.

If you’re affected by Coronavirus and need to contact us about arranging a funeral

We’ll still be able to help, but we ask that you call us first. We’ll need to ask you a few questions to ensure we are suitably prepared and can give you the correct advice and guidance. It may be safer and more practical to make the arrangements over the telephone and paperwork can be posted or emailed to you to limit physical contact.

How funerals will change

During this outbreak we are expecting there to be some impact to the funerals we arrange. As we need to follow government advice, it’s highly likely that funerals carried out in this time will not be how you originally planned and we will have to make changes to our traditional practices.

Church of England, Scotland and Wales and many Catholic Diocese have stopped taking services and have closed until further notice. There are now some exceptions where a limited number of local Church of England churches can accommodate a small funeral service prior to cremation or interment, please contact us directly for up to date information.

Embalming procedures will once again be carried out by ourselves, if required, as our chapels of rest are now available for visiting your loved one. We will need to have seen cause of death documentation to confirm that COVID-19 has not been confirmed or suspected before we can commit to providing this service.

If you’re planning on attending a funeral

All funerals taking place at this time should be limited to immediate family and close friends only. If you’re attending a funeral, please continue to follow the government advice to protect at-risk groups, ensuring you wash your hands and avoid all unnecessary contact.

We encourage families to use their own transport to the funeral if possible, however we are now able to offer following limousines if required. Our vehicles have been fitted with protective screening to provide a partition between yourselves and our team. We do require you to wear facemasks whilst travelling in the limousines and suggest 4 passengers in each vehicle, unless you reside in the same property or have formed a social bubble with the others, in which case we can transfer 6 passengers safely seated behind the protective screening.

If you need to plan a funeral

We are unable to offer funeral arrangement appointments at your home. We are asking that no more than 2 people attend our premises to make funeral arrangements, so that we can still comply with social distancing guidelines in our family room.

Prepaid plans can be arranged over the telephone and by post, we will not be sitting with anyone face to face to arrange prepaid funeral plans.

We’re here to help support and guide you through. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by calling us on 01925 633388

You can find the latest government health guidance on Coronavirus on the NHS website.