- It is aimed at funeral companies improving the health and safety measures in funeral facilities that are open to the general public.
- Ensuring that relatives and friends of the deceased can make greater use of these services with increased safety is essential for the proper management of the mourning process.
4 June 2020. The National Association of Funeral Services (PANASEF), in collaboration with the Spanish Association for Standardization, UNE, has promoted a UNE Specification that establishes the hygienic-health requirements and recommendations that must be adhered to by funeral companies operating facilities that are open to the public in order to prevent the risk of infection from coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
The UNE 0069 Specification for Measures to prevent hygienic-health risks from SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in public access areas of funeral facilities has the ultimate goal of re-establishing, by increasing security and generating trust, the public activity of funeral services buildings, crematoriums and funeral parlours. The UNE Specification has been sent to the Ministry of Health and the Autonomous Communities for their validation.
UNE, under the leadership of PANASEF, has been responsible for coordinating the preparation of this Specification, drawn up in record time by a working group in which associations, companies and public bodies have participated. The sector has made an extraordinary effort to provide a Specification in order to generate confidence and peace of mind for users. UNE has drawn up this Specification for the funeral services sector in accordance with their objective of contributing to the competitiveness and safety of companies, the protection of people and of the environment, as well as the improvement of business risk control.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has caused an exponential increase in the number of deaths in Spain. As the last link in the healthcare chain, it has been the funeral sector's responsibility to manage this serious crisis in exceptional conditions, which included the closure of facilities for arranging funerals, a key element in the mourning process of family and loved ones, in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
This Specification seeks to ensure that, in the current context of standardisation and the progressive restarting of funeral ceremonies and wakes, citizens know that they can attend funeral facilities that have adopted this UNE Specification, with the confidence and peace of mind that they have been sanitised in accordance with an approved protocol. The possibility of appropriately bidding farewell to loved ones is essential for the correct mourning process by friends and family after a death.
The UNE Specification provides sector companies with measures and requirements, including guidelines for the drawing up of risk plans and their management, cleaning and disinfection protocols in public spaces and their potential temporary closure, protocols for providing care and information to users, provision and reduction of equipment and furniture, social distancing measures, use of protective screens, etc.
