The Ministry of Health has prohibited all wakes, regardless of the cause of death and whether they are held in public or private facilities, including private homes, to limit the spread and contagion of COVID-19.
This is stated in the ministerial order published this Monday in the Official State Gazette (BOE), which specifies that in the case of deaths from COVID-19, no practices of thanatoesthetics, thanatopraxia interventions, or interventions for religious reasons that involve invasive procedures on the corpse may be performed.
The regulation includes other exceptional measures such as the restriction of funeral ceremonies. In this sense, the celebration of religious services or civil funeral ceremonies will be postponed until the state of alarm ends.
However, in the burial or farewell for the cremation of the deceased person, the attendance of three family members or close friends will be allowed, in addition, if applicable, the assimilated person of the respective confession for the practice of funeral rites of farewell to the deceased. These people must always respect the distance of one to two meters between them.
The order also regulates, at the proposal of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, some of the conditions for contracting funeral services.
