NEW YORK - With the coronavirus pandemic leading to more deaths than many funeral homes can handle, many funeral directors in the city are now overwhelmed and getting frustrated.

"I’m refusing cases. Unfortunately I’m not taking anything else," said Arsenio Lopez of the Borinquen Funeral Home.

Arsenio Lopez and other funeral home workers leaving the Department of Health’s death registration office on Thursday said a big reason for that frustration stems from the city’s recent decision to reduce window hours to process death registrations from nearly 24 hours to just eight hours.

A DOH spokesman says the decision was made, in part, to encourage social distancing.

And while those in line have been standing at least six feet apart, many funeral home workers say it can now take two or three hours to receive physical copies of death certificates or burials. And it’s during hours when other urgent business needs tending to.

“Who set those rules? I don’t know but it’s very bad for us because from 8 to 4 p.m., we’re usually serving families, picking up bodies, it’s not a 10 minute stuff. It takes three to four hours to get the bodies from these trailers nowadays and then you gotta file and you got slots in the cemeteries," Lopez said.

 

“Everything is more difficult because everyone is overwhelmed. They’re just overwhelmed. Funeral homes. Health department," said another funeral worker.

In response to many complaints from funeral directors, starting Thursday the city says its death registration office will be open an additional four hours each day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

But for an industry where some religions require bodies be buried quickly, even the revised hours may not be enough.

"It’s doing the opposite of what it should be. Why can’t you be open 24 hours like you normally are?” Lopez asked.

Patrick Gallahue, a spokesman for the city health department, says window hours for the death registration unit were initially reduced to encourage social distancing.

And to reduce the need for window service, he says the DOH has been making an aggressive push to encourage doctors to submit death certificates electronically.

If it’s entered electronically, Gallahue says funeral home workers could potentially avoid coming to the DOH office in person to receive for an official death certificate. 

He also says funeral directors would be able to print an electronic copy of a burial permit if an electronic death certificate has been approved by the health department.