Owners Rick Noel and Kim Kandaras discussed the effects of COVID-19 in the funeral industry with RGJ Reno Gazette Journal.

“On Monday, Rick Noel received a call from a potential client. Like many others, this client had just lost a loved one.

But there was something else: The loved one died at a local hospital and medical staff suspected that the deceased may have been infected with COVID-19, the highly contagious virus that has caused a global pandemic and forced communities worldwide to self-isolate.

The client said the test results for the virus had not come back yet.

Noel and co-owner Kim Kandaras own a cemetery and 15 funeral or cremation-related service sites in the Northern Nevada and Susanville area. Noel said the guidelines change day by day on how such services are supposed to operate during the coronavirus pandemic.

How many people can gather. How the body can be prepared. Even how paperwork is handled.

It is definitely a challenge to create the same experience for clients that they might typically expect while the world faces a pandemic, the owners said.

“It is vital that people gather,” said Kandaras of the grieving process. “It’s really a healing time for people to share stories and hugs and have some laughs. It’s not all about loss, but about celebration too.”

Read the complete article, “Streaming services. Caskets chosen online. Reno-area funeral homes cope with COVID-19″.