'We Have No Space': LA County Funeral Director Describes Virus's Toll - NPR

A casket is loaded into a hearse at the Boyd Funeral Home as burials at cemeteries are delayed to the surge of COVID-19 deaths on Jan.

A casket is loaded into a hearse at the Boyd Funeral Home as burials at cemeteries are delayed to the surge of COVID-19 deaths on Jan.

The county is currently experiencing a post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases.

In the normal times, when a death occurs, the family would say — say the death occurred on a Monday — "Can we have a service on Thursday." And we'd say "Absolutely." Well now we have to tell the family that we're scheduling services in February.

Every death that occurs in California, the death certificate has to be filed with the county health department and a permit has to be issued by that department.

And if the department's closed — and for instance, at Christmas and New Year's, they closed the day before the holiday, they were closed the holiday, they were closed the weekend.

Four days, funeral directors in the state weren't able to file death certificates or get permits for cremation or burial

So families that have ground burial may find that when they go to the cemetery, the cemetery says, 'I am sorry, we don't have a burial vault for your loved one and we won't have one for 15 or 20 days.' There's a shortage of cardboard boxes for cremation