50 attendees allowed at funerals

‘‘Funerals are exceptional events and have been one of the most difficult areas of restriction that we’ve considered.’’ David Clark Minister of Health

The Government has relaxed the cap on the number of attendees at funerals and tangi at alert level 2 to 50.

It had been set at just 10 attendees.

From today funeral directors can obtain dispensation to allow up to 50 people to attend a funeral, as long as the Ministry of Health is satisfied that a range of public health measures can consistently be met, such as physical distancing, good hand hygiene and no food and drink congregations afterwards.

‘‘Funerals are exceptional events and have been one of the most difficult areas of restriction that we’ve considered as we try to avoid the double tragedy of losing a loved one and spreading the virus,’’ Health Minister David Clark said.

The cap had caused widespread

public outrage after it was noted that restaurants and cinemas could welcome 100 guests provided they were adequately distanced.

The Government said the inconsistency was because people who attended funerals and tangi did so with the express purpose of comforting one another, unlike

gatherings at restaurants and cinemas.

Clark said funerals had been at the heart of many deadly clusters overseas.

‘‘Around the world we have seen the virus spread at funerals as well as a second wave of infection taking hold just as countries were getting on top of the virus, like we are now.

‘‘For example, a funeral of 100 people in the US led to an outbreak resulting in 30 deaths across one county, three funerals in South Africa led to 200 cases, and 143 cases in Canada have been linked to one funeral home,’’ he said.

As a result of the changes, funeral directors will now register funerals with the Ministry of Health and declare that health requirements have been met.

As many as 300 biker gang members and affiliates openly broke the coronavirus mass gatherings rules at a Matamata funeral, as several police watched on.

Lawrence Lynch was one of seven mourners at a funeral on Monday for his sister-in-law, who Stuff has agreed not to name, where a roll call was taken to ensure they were adhering to mass gathering restrictions.

The following day, Lynch returned to Matamata Cemetery to put something on the grave site, only to be greeted by hordes of mourners.

‘‘Holy smokes

– there’s all these bloody motorcycle gangs there. There’s about 200 or 300,’’ Lynch said.

‘‘Brassed off’’ by the flagrant dismissal of the rules, Lynch asked police for an explanation.

‘‘They said ‘we can’t do nothing about it’. To be quite honest, I don’t think the cops could do anything about it, because there were too many of the gang members,’’ Lynch said.

He then approached the Matamata-Piako District Council.

‘‘They said ‘it’s out of control, and we couldn’t do [anything] so we called the police in’,’’ Lynch said.

A cap on numbers at his sisterin-law’s funeral was difficult — his children were not able to attend the service.

‘‘It was not very nice, I thought, but if that’s the ruling,

Lawrence Lynch

that’s the ruling. That’s what I’m brassed off about.

‘‘If we have to sacrifice that, how come that they were allowed that yesterday? It’s quite sad when you lose a family member.’’

Matamata-Piako District said it had received an application for an internment to take place at

Matamata Cemetery on Tuesday.

A council spokesperson said ‘‘we provided instructions, as we have done all throughout level 3, that 10 people would be permitted and their names must be provided in advance to be ticked off on arrival’’.

‘‘We later heard rumours in the community that large numbers were planning to attend the burial, so we arranged for security guards to be present at the cemetery.

‘‘When the numbers started to exceed the limits set in the government guidelines, we escalated this to the police.’’

Police acting district commander Waikato Inspector Andrew Mortimore said officers spoke to mourners involved prior to Tuesday’s service.

‘‘Police staff will be following up with those at the service who may have breached the restrictions and enforcement action in the form of warnings or prosecutions is being considered.’’

National leader Simon Bridges launched a petition calling for the ‘‘inhumane funeral and tangi rules’’ to be relaxed to allow up to 100 people at funerals, weddings and places of worship.

‘‘It’s not fair that you can have 30 people on a rugby field playing close contact sport, but you can’t have more than 10 people at a funeral, so they can grieve together,’’ Bridges said.

After meetings with church leaders, funeral directors and iwi leaders over the past 24 hours, the Government yesterday announced numbers at funerals would be loosened to 50 people.

‘‘I don’t think the cops could do anything about it, because there were too many of the gang members.’’