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As many more people die from the coronavirus than ever before, there is mounting pressure on funeral homes and cremation plants, Népszava reported.
In the first half of November this year, almost one and a half times more people died in Hungary than the average in previous years. The increase in the number of deaths alone is also putting more pressure on funeral homes and cremation plants.
The country’s 17 cremation plants still carry the burden, although since the beginning of the epidemic, more and more families in the countryside have opted for burial with urns, Zoltán Tóth, president of the National Association of Hungarian Crematories, told the newspaper.
The plants are currently operating at an average utilization rate of 60-70%, but this ratio is higher than the national average in Borsod, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Zala and Vas counties.
Even before the epidemic, cremation was chosen by many people year after year, mainly because it costs about half that of casket burial of 370 to 400 thousand florins, but the process has accelerated since the beginning of the pandemic. So much so that most crematoria now only accept corpses at pre-set times so cremation can begin immediately.
In larger settlements the waiting time for goodbyes has also increased. In many places it can take up to two weeks before the ceremony, because in winter the number of hours of light decreases, so that no more than 6-7 funerals can be carried a day, although the farewell speeches are usually shortened and there are ceremonies in the funeral home. family members don’t get together.
It slows down procedures so that funeral service workers are also not spared from the virus. According to a report by the National Association of Funerals and Industries (OTEI), the infection has also appeared among clerical and manual workers in various parts of the country.
Although the capital postponed the introduction of the decree on price increases in August, according to the Budapest Funeral Institute Ltd. website, the fee for some supplies and services will increase from January 2021. Among the large rural cities of Miskolc, Népszava found an amendment to the decree that allowed the funeral home of the municipal seat to increase its rates by 25 percent starting in September, but according to the justification, no price has been raised since 2012.
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