Funeral Directors' Plan for Bird Flu in New Zealand

The Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand has ruled out the need for mass burials in the event of a bird flu pandemic, but says funeral services would not be held and cremations would be rare. The associations' pandemic committee chairman Simon Manning says the industry's plans for any pandemic allow for all victims to be buried with dignity, in individual marked graves.

Manning says if coffins ran out, heavy polythene bodybags would be used. He says funeral services would not be held because gatherings would be banned, and there would not be many cremations. Manning says bodies would be buried within 48 hours of death and people would be buried in the district in which they died.


Source: TVNZ