Covid-19 response
UPDATE: February 2023
Almost everything we thought about Covid in early 2020 turned out to be wrong. Nevertheless in an environment where nobody knew what to do, our collective caution was justified. Lives were spared by staying home, while others were lost by not getting needed medical care for things like suicidal depression, cancer, and heart disease. Those deaths will be chalked up as deaths that were going to happen anyway.
It now appears that the disease in many forms will be with us for a long time. Currently ( Jan, 2023), the dominant variant nationwide is XBB.1.5 (nicknamed “kraken,”), with 49% of cases, followed by BQ.1.1, with 27% of cases. Repeat infections are common.
People are home testing. Most infections go unreported so the above percentages are low.
At UW Medicine’s four campuses COVID-19 hospitalizations were higher in January 2023 than at any other point in the pandemic.
The pandemic has fundamentally changed peoples’ behavior. We implemented on-line tools so people did not have to personally visit one of our offices to do funeral arrangements. Now that we can safely meet personally with people, most still use the on-line tools to complete their arrangements. They are no longer afraid of Covid. Instead they have a healthy fear of navigating the freeways and appreciate the time they can save by quickly doing the clerical type tasks on-line.
We welcome people to visit our offices. Caution is still important. We use HEPA filters for clean air and good quality masks to protect our visitors and staff. We no longer hug people even if they really need a hug.
Here are our original links if anybody is still interested:
We are employing procedures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to keep you safe and reduce as much as possible the spread of the coronavirus. Our primary objective is to comfort you in the difficult time of a death in the family, and to make your funeral arrangements as easy as possible. The links below answer some questions people are having during the pandemic.
Stay Informed and Be Prepared – Click this link to government resources
