Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day, a cornerstone event at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is now in its 24th year of honoring the creative and academic work of hundreds of undergraduate students. But its usual format, in which presenters, moderators and guests pack tightly into the University Center to share posters and oral presentations, is far from tenable amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which has closed UMBC’s physical campus until at least fall 2020.

Director of Undergraduate Research Dr. April Householder knew that URCAD would have to be moved online, but she did not know how. Initially, students were told that they would simply be uploading PDFs of their posters and presentations, but the interactive nature of URCAD, in which guests walk through exhibits and engage with presenters, would have been totally lost this way.

The Department of Information Technology was instrumental in figuring out what technology would be best suited for shifting their event online, ultimately choosing a tool called VoiceThread. VoiceThread allows presenters to add a voiceover to their visual elements, and also allows viewers to leave not only text, but also audio and video, comments on presentations.

For Dr. John Fritz, Associate Vice President for Instructional Technology, VoiceThread was the natural choice for three reasons. Firstly, UMBC already had a VoiceThread license, “which was key since we didn’t have much time to pull this off,” Fritz explained via email. 

Secondly, VoiceThread is multimedia friendly without being as cumbersome as teleconferences: Fritz describes it “as a video conference that occurs over time, not at the same time or a discussion board where you can do more than read what people write” (emphasis his). Finally, he hoped that URCAD could serve as an opportunity to expose the UMBC community to VoiceThread, which is a tool that has been under-utilized by faculty up to this point.

Householder says that this method will be effective for keeping student presentations essentially the same as they would have been in person; what will be different about this year’s URCAD is that it will take place over the course of an entire week, from April 22 to 29. This allows guests an extended period of time to watch and comment on presentations and also affords the researchers more time to respond. 

She sees this as a blessing in disguise; URCAD is usually held on a Wednesday, meaning that students are racing in and out of the event, to and from class. As such, they do not always have time to thoroughly engage with the projects. “The asynchronous format is really allowing us to give that experience to viewers … where they don’t feel rushed,” Householder said. She hopes that this extended version of URCAD will give guests more time to leave thoughtful comments and ask meaningful questions. (Only those with UMBC email addresses will be able to interact with the presentations, though).

The online format also comes with another surprising boon: the ability to archive presentations. Every year, the abstracts from URCAD are archived, but VoiceThread will allow entire presentations, as well as any interactions between presenters and their audiences, to be memorialized digitally. Householder is excited that prospective students who are interested in completing research will have these examples to look to when they are considering UMBC.

One presenter, Rosie McNeely, sees another way that this archive will be beneficial: as a resource for future researchers.

McNeely will be presenting an oral presentation and PowerPoint that is the culmination of the research she has done about the Lavender Scare, a period of time concurrent with the better-known Red Scare, during which LGBTQ+ people were fired from government jobs en masse. But when it came time to work on her digital presentation, she was unsure where to begin.

“I was like, ‘Oh, God, how am I going to do this? What’s it really going to look like?’” she recalled. Though she knows that this is an unusual situation and it is unlikely that URCAD will be held digitally again anytime soon, she still feels that this online archive could serve as a reference for anyone who has to present research digitally in the future.

McNeely, who has previously used VoiceThread in a language class, does not anticipate her presentation being significantly different from what she would have presented in person — it is still an oral presentation accompanied by a PowerPoint that contains mostly images and visual aids. She also notes that she had essentially finished her research by the time social distancing went into full effect.

A few presenters have had their projects completely upended, however. In fact, the rules regarding what can be presented at URCAD this year were adjusted to account for unfinished projects. Whereas most years students must present data during URCAD, students who were unable to finish their research due to the effects of COVID-19 will have the opportunity to share “something that’s leaning a little bit towards a literature review,” according to Householder.

There are other students, still, who completed their projects but will not be able to display them as originally planned. Amongst them is an interdisciplinary team of students who were planning to present UMBC’s latest kinetic sculpture, MC Hammerhead.

The team had planned to have the sculpture, which is designed in an individualized studies class to participate in Baltimore’s annual kinetic sculpture race, on display outside of the UC, where URCAD attendees would be able to look at, touch and even ride the sculpture. This would have been the optimal way to show off their work, said team member and junior individualized studies and animation double major Susanna Abler. She explained that it would have been “an opportunity for people to have their own experience with the sculpture and see it first hand, because it’s kind of a weird thing to hear about.”

Their new presentation will include a series of videos where the teammates each describe their own role in the project; Abler, for example, worked on the design of MC Hammerhead, with an awareness of how her art could impact the sculpture’s functions. 

Even though they may not be able to go as in-depth into the details of the sculpture as they would have in person, Abler thinks visual aids will play a huge role in exhibiting different concepts and parts of the construction process.

“[The videos are] going to be talking about: here’s something we changed, here’s a picture of what it was like before and after, maybe different iterations of design that we went through,” Abler explained. “We try to do a really good job of documenting things with photographs.”

Beyond presentations, Householder has also made an effort to retain URCAD’s most distinctive elements. Keynote speaker Keisha John, like the student presenters, will be sending in a video that Householder anticipates will go up midway through the week. URCAD’s annual selfie contest will still happen, but will focus on screenshots rather than traditional selfies. The UMBC Review, a journal of UMBC undergraduate research that is usually released during URCAD, will be posted in PDF form.

“All of the other elements of URCAD that make it fun and interactive will still be there,” Householder said.

URCAD this year may not be in the format that researchers imagined it would be when they began their work — a disappointing end to a year of hard work for many. Still, according to Householder, many symposiums and conferences were simply canceled as a result of COVID-19.

“This is totally uncharted territory, and we’re just happy to be moving forward at this point,” she said.

OCA Mocha has become home to many artists’ creations. The coffee shop hosts ongoing galleries and art events throughout the year, including an exhibit focused on environmental sustainability just this past January through March. The cafe has given an opportunity for University of Maryland Baltimore County’s artists to display and share their art outside of UMBC’s campus, favoring the exploration of different avenues when it comes to introducing one’s own art to multiple and various communities. However, recent changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have shut down OCA Mocha, leaving the walls of its planned exhibitions barren.

In an effort to keep the promotion of student art alive, OCA Mocha has decided to introduce an online exhibition. Hannah Bashar, art history and biology major expected to graduate in spring 2020, is the arts intern behind the upcoming online exhibition. With her position at OCA Mocha, Bashar has a variety of responsibilities including rotating exhibitions, installing artwork, calling out for artists to submit to the exhibitions along with many other tasks.  She had great ideas planned for the spring semester including an Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day pop-up exhibit and performance night. However, given that URCAD also converted to an online format, Brashar adjusted her plans to fit the current climate, not letting the pandemic take away artists’ chances to be showcased in an exhibit. 

In response to the virtual exhibit, Brashar said, “When OCA mocha closed, I thought this dream could never be realized, but now it can – just in a different format! I really want to use this opportunity to promote artists because they’ve been hit pretty hard during this pandemic.  Before I had this internship, I’d always look at my friends’ artworks and be like, ‘wow, I really wish I could put that up on a wall for the world to see’, and now that I’m in a position where I can do that, I was to help artists to achieve that dream.”

The upcoming wave of art has been tasked with presenting non-figurative portraits. Artists are challenged to imagine and create portraitures beyond a traditional form. Prompting abstract thought, this call is open to all artists and gives their creations an opportunity to be featured on OCA Mocha’s social media pages. 

Students who want to submit their art for consideration for the upcoming online exhibit should email their creations to gp42412@umbc.edu. Submissions are due by Wednesday, April 22. Other guidelines can be found at https://ocamocha.com/upcoming-exhibits.

Brashar has also made efforts to translate the other OCA Mocha-based art events onto an online format. For example, Brashar has successfully set up online sessions with the OCA Mocha Kids Club, which she describes as “a OCA-Mocha-generated club that promotes education through hands-on activities.” In previous, in-person sessions, the OCA Mocha Kids Club has worked on activities in collaboration with UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture aimed at teaching the club members about cultural appropriation. The session went hand in hand with “The Museum of the Old Colony” exhibit the CADVC hosted. Tackling important ideas in modern culture, the accomplishments and lessons of the OCA Mocha Kids Club makes a point towards the importance of keeping such activities alive, even in the midst of this pandemic.

It looks as though the rewards of virtualization show promise for the continuation of these implemented changes after COVID-19 has calmed down. Brashar commented, “I definitely want to take this digitization of art with us into the future after the pandemic because it’ll increase accessibility of our gallery works, and it keeps in line with OCA Mocha’s mission of supporting and establishing ties with the surrounding community. Accessibility is a pretty big issue within the Museum field, so I aim to be a forerunner in that advocacy effort by employing developments in the intersections of accessibility and technology.”

Although the pandemic shut down OCA Mocha’s in-person events, great effort has been made to keep the OCA Mocha community alive on an online platform. Artists are still encouraged to showcase their creations through a digitized platform, and that opportunity has shown the resilience of those at UMBC who are passionate about sharing art.

With courses moving online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, college students across the country had to leave their on-campus housing to minimize the risk of exposure and spread of the virus. After the decision was made to fully transition to distance learning for the rest of the spring semester, University of Maryland, Baltimore County students found themselves stuck at home while their belongings were left on-campus.

“Our expertise is how to move students in and out. In student housing, we do that all the time,” said John Fox, the Director of Residential Life. “But in the context of [the coronavirus], how do we effectively … move out nearly four thousand students without compromising safety?”

To answer this question, Residential Life worked in consultation with other members of the UMBC community to come up with a move-out process that addressed the associated health risks. This collaboration included the Incident Management Team, who convened under UMBC’s Emergency Response Plan specifically to address coronavirus related issues. Residential Life then created a plan for students to move out all of their belongings that remained in their dorms, which was communicated to students through an email on Mar. 25. Student residents were asked to schedule a two-hour long appointment within a two-week window to return to campus to collect their possessions. Residents were permitted to bring one other person to assist them and could not be in the dorm at the same time as their roommates. The plan was designed to minimize the number of people on campus at the same time and to promote social distancing.

About half of all residents were signed up to move out when the process came to a halt after Governor Larry Hogan issued a stay-at-home order on Mar. 30, requiring Marylanders to only leave their homes for essential reasons. According to Marie Lilly, the director of Community Engagement at UMBC, the university made a decision at the institutional level that individual students with extenuating circumstances could proceed in the move-out process “but the large scale movement of people was in no way keeping with the spirit particularly at the beginning of the stay at home order.” All scheduled appointments were canceled, and move out was postponed without a definitive date.

“We are not going to move forward without either the [stay-at-home order] lifting or more explicit guidance from the state [or] the university system,” Lilly said.

Several other universities in the University System of Maryland had residents move completely out of their on-campus housing before the stay at home order was in effect. Towson University has utilized an alternative method of emptying dorms and apartments by partnering with an outside moving company. Movers equipped with gloves and masks meet with Towson residents through Zoom video conferences as they pack up their remaining belongings, which are later shipped to the students’ home addresses.

“We have actually heard from some students who were anxious about a moving company coming in and touching their stuff because they heard Towson did it … which we totally get,” Lilly said. “Right now, we are looking at all the options and we anticipate an ultimate plan having multiple options but we are not ready to say yet that we definitely will offer movers.”

Although nothing is confirmed, Residential Life is considering the best ways to accommodate students who have concerns about coming back to campus like people whose home address is far away or the potential risks for immunocompromised family members, according to John Fox.

“We know that not everyone will be able to sign up for a time and arrive within a certain window so our goal is to have multiple options so people can determine what works best for them,” Fox said.

There are currently about 70 students who are still living on campus. They were approved by Residential Life to remain in their spring housing assignments for the rest of the semester due to extraneous circumstances. Several of the students are international, come from out of state or have some sort of personal home situation that makes it difficult to return to their home addresses. The buildings that have remained ‘open’ for these individual students are all the apartment complexes, as well as limited spaces within Harbor Hall and Potomac Hall. Residential Life was potentially going to consolidate some of the remaining students together, particularly for residents living in Harbor Hall and Potomac Hall who do not have access to individual kitchens. However, that would be dependent on moving other students out so at this time no action towards consolidation has occurred.

The residential buildings that are still housing students are cleaned daily by ABM Industries Inc, the contracted facilities management company that cleans all of UMBC’s buildings. At the beginning of March, ABM integrated Virex TB, a cleaning product designed to target viruses like influenza, to their regular cleaning solutions to disinfect frequent contact spots such as doorknobs or counters. Common areas like study spaces and restrooms have been disinfected in all the residential buildings in preparation for when students come back on campus to move out. Rooms that are currently unoccupied have been routinely checked for “environmental conditions such as humidity, leaks, and temperature,” according to an email sent to residents on April 6. Rooms have also had trash thrown out, refrigerators, showers, toilets and sinks cleaned, as well as floor vacuumed with the promise that students’ possessions would be disrupted as little as possible.

Residential Life plans on updating students at the end of April on the status of the move-out process. “Much like everyone else, our information is constantly evolving and we are making the best decisions with the information we have,” Fox said.

In lieu of the constant cancellations of performances and events due to COVID-19, the music, theatre and other performing and visual arts departments of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County are scrambling to find ways to showcase the hard work and dedication of their students without having any live performances.

“Our entire livelihood relies on meeting in person,” Rowland Smith, a theatre major at UMBC, says. Smith was an actor, cast in the canceled show “Gwyneth,” which was scheduled to be performed one week after spring break. 

These same barriers are hitting artists across all genres, many of whom are struggling to adjust to the new reality of social distancing. Many student artists spent the entire year preparing for performances scheduled for the end of the spring semester, but like many other daily routines, these performances have slipped out of reach. 

Regardless of these challenges, many departments at UMBC have been experimenting with a solution that demonstrates both courage and creativity: virtual events.

The UMBC Wind Ensemble takes the lead in this futuristic innovation. The director of the Wind Ensemble, Brian Kaufman, with the help of a music technician student, plans to edit together separate video recordings from each of the 50 students in the ensemble, all of them playing the same song, The combined product will be the first virtual concert in UMBC history.

In order to remedy the issue of every player keeping in time with each other and hence helping ease the technical department’s workload, Bentley Corbett — a graduate student earning his M.A. in teaching —will be recorded conducting the music with a piano track of the song being played in the background. Every student, while watching and listening to Corbett’s video through headphones, must then submit a video recording of themselves playing their assigned sheet music on their own instruments. 

The inspiration behind this, Kaufman reveals, comes from a tweet written by professional musician, Dr. Daniel Bernard Roumain. Earlier this semester, Roumain collaborated with UMBC’s Wind Ensemble and the Baltimore OrchKids for a multimedia concert advocating gun control through instrumental music, videos and song. 

“We must now become beacons of light and love. We must lead the way. Artists always have and do and will,” Roumain writes in this social media post. 

The song selected for this virtual concert is a piece titled “Elegy for a Young American.” The piece, written by Ronald Lo Presti in response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, is meant to represent the different stages of grief. It has become a relevant subject during this time of crisis as all of us experience the same loss of our normal, everyday lives. 

“I’m hoping our virtual performance will be helpful for us as performers in expressing our feelings and feeding the souls of others from our community who listen as we grapple with this challenging situation,” Kaufman says. With the help of social media platforms, he plans to spread the virtual concert as far as possible. 

“We all need that connection right now,” Kaufman adds.

Other departments have also been using digital means to overcome the restrictions of social distancing. The Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts — an interdisciplinary department on campus looking to foster conversations between faculty, students and the arts — has been promoting its online newsletter which offers numerous updates and opportunities for isolated artists, many of whom rely entirely on income from the in-person auctioning of their art.

Issue 13 of the “CIRCA Digest” arranges a long list of links underneath each of its headings, providing information about financial resources for artists during this period of social distancing, local government COVID-19 updates, online professional development workshops, potential internships, current open submissions and contests and even awards and funds for faculty members.

Timothy Nohe, director of CIRCA, understands how important it is that his department continues to spread its influence in order to help ensure artists are given the chance to promote their creations, even in a time of crisis.

“Part of what we’re doing is helping people feel seen and heard when you feel very disconnected. And the other part of it is a kind of triage, which is artists really need audiences very often to complete the work itself. They need to be seen. They need to be heard,” he says. “We’re trying to build them a life raft right now that’s not just bread and water. It’s not just the basic accommodations.”

CIRCA also invites students to submit photos of visual arts, music, theater and dance creations to them for the possibility of being posted on the organization’s Instagram channel, @circa_umbc. This Instagram page currently hosts multiple announcements for virtual art events and online submissions being put together by organizations at UMBC and across the state.

Some of these include UMBC’s Virtual Clothesline Project where students can submit t-shirt designs relating to their stories of sexual or power-based violence; “Coffee with Ken [Skrzesz],” the Maryland State Arts Council Executive Director, which is advertised as a dialogue between artists of Maryland; and the call by Media and Communication Studies department head Dr. Rebecca Adelman for individual stories about the pandemic, which will be compiled into a self-described “Pandemic Archive.”

In addition to these announcements, CIRCA’s Instagram page frequently features art by current students and alumni. At the time of publication, alumna Jill Fannon’s stunning photograph titled, “Nurse in the garden,” from her series on pandemic healthcare workers, leads the growing collection of art from UMBC artists on CIRCA’s Instagram page.

The digitalization and perseverance of all visual and performing art departments across campus embodies UMBC’s values of innovation, impact and collaboration. Though the future ahead is uncertain, artists everywhere are adapting.

“To go back to that Latin phrase: ‘Ars longa.’ Art lasts. And it’s sometimes the thing that survives a culture,” Nohe professes, “The art of a culture goes forward.”

When University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Recreation and Physical Education team learned that campus would be closed for the duration of the semester, they quickly set to work figuring out how to continue offering their fitness classes to students. Through their meetings, they decided to livestream classes through the Instagram TV platform, allowing all Instagram users to join the workout. This decision ensures that the UMBC community continues to have the opportunity to exercise under the instruction of familiar faces.

“Many different aspects were considered when transitioning our program online. We focused on offering classes that met the diverse needs of our community,” said Alea Burke, Assistant Director of Recreation-Fitness and Wellness. “We also had to provide classes that could be done in a home environment, within a small space with little to no equipment. We determined comprehensive schedules that includes our most popular classes to benefit the community.” 

The bond formed between instructors and students is why the UMBC recreation team was adamant about continuing the classes.

“Instructors and their students create communities dedicated to self-care, both mentally and physically,” said UMBC yoga instructor Erica Sligh. “Online platforms allow us to keep our communities connected, and to welcome new potential students as well.”

The instructors’ desire to remain steadfast in their support of students is clear in each of the online sessions. Instead of ignoring the pandemic, instructors routinely acknowledge the massive shift in routine while simultaneously encouraging people not to let it derail their efforts to be healthy and fit. 

There are countless workout videos, blogs and websites available across the internet, but a sense of community distinguishes UMBC’s classes from the rest. It is what keeps students coming to class even in the midst of this health crisis. 

Briscoe Turner, a junior psychology major, said that she chose to participate in UMBC’s virtual kickboxing class because she knew the instructor from a previous semester.

“I felt it was more personal because I had the previous connection,” Turner said. “Sometimes it takes forever to find the right online video, but with UMBC virtual classes I already knew what I was getting.”

Because of the shift in students’ schedules, the Recreation and Physical Education team discussed how to make sure classes were easily accessible even if students could not make the scheduled class time. Initially, the recreation team settled on Instagram Live and added the recordings to their Instagram story so that they could be viewed for the rest of the day. Due to technical difficulties transferring videos from Instagram Live to YouTube, the recreation team moved their classes to IGTV. This move also lets UMBC Recreation to upload the videos to the UMBCRec TV YouTube channel.

There were also some hiccups early on with copyrighted music appearing in the sessions, but instructors now opt to use royalty-free music or to conduct sessions without music.

Despite some of the challenges for the classes on the new platform, the UMBC Recreation and Physical Education team believes it is beneficial to have classes posted on social media.

“The greatest strength of this new way of teaching is that everyone can access a variety of new, free, online classes whenever it’s most convenient for them,” Sligh said.

That accessibility gives everyone, from current UMBC students and faculty to alumni, the opportunity to participate in the fitness classes.

While the emotional stress caused by the coronavirus pandemic can drive fitness from peoples’ thoughts, the Center for Disease Control states that exercising regularly is one way to cope with the stress.

Christine Jenkins, UMBC cardio party instructor, said how important fitness is amidst the pandemic’s chaos. She explained that incorporating fitness into new routines can help the adjustment process to life at home.

“The opportunity to have some type of schedule or normalcy, the opportunity to really exercise your mind and body will give structure to your day,” Jenkins said. “It will help us throughout this time to stay sane. We don’t want to all come out of this pandemic not being able to recognize ourselves. So being able to be the best version of ourselves while we’re at home and being able to #stayactive is still important during this time.” 

UMBC’s fitness classes are posted every Monday through Friday 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on IGTV @UMBCrec and the UMBCRecTV YouTube channel. Any feedback about the classes can be directed to the Assistant Director of Recreation, Fitness and Wellness Alea Burke, at aleab@umbc.edu.

by Lucy Wilson, Professor of Emergency Health Services, UMBC

As the grim reality of COVID-19 unfolds, families and health care workers in the United States are faced with dealing with the horrifying magnitude of deaths from this novel disease. This tragic situation brings forth the question of whether the bodies of patients who have died from COVID-19 provide a risk of infection in others.

I have worked for many years as an infectious disease doctor and public health official, during emerging disease outbreaks, such as Ebola virus disease in 2015. I have witnessed the extra challenges families experience when faced with the death of their loved ones from a highly transmissible infectious disease. For this current pandemic, here are the safety guidelines for dealing with deceased loved ones and the reasons why, from a scientific perspective.

Contagion risk decreases after death

Public health authorities have set out guidance for the management of the deceased based on current knowledge of both susceptibility to and transmissibility of the coronavirus.

The recommendations for handling those deceased from COVID-19 are based on knowledge that this novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is most commonly transmitted by respiratory droplets that are projected by a living person through coughing and sneezing. Therefore, after death, the risk from this respiratory mechanism is no longer present. However, the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) can also be transmitted from indirect contact: that is, touching a surface contaminated with the virus and then self-contaminating by touching one’s eyes, nose or mouth.

Preventing transmission when handling the deceased is achieved by “contact precautions,” which includes wearing a gown and gloves and hand-washing after removing these barriers. The deceased is placed in a body bag and the bag is then wiped down with EPA-approved disinfecting wipes prior to transportation.

This guidance holds in the funeral home setting as well, except there are additional instructions for preventing airborne transmission of coronavirus when certain body processing procedures, such as embalming, are performed.

This type of guidance in the health care setting is fairly standard for handling the deceased who is potentially infectious, given the risk of indirect contact of the patient with surrounding medical equipment, bedding and furniture.

During the Ebola pandemic, much stricter guidance was enforced, but this was also related to the tremendous amount of infectious fluids that were produced by a symptomatic patient, including profuse diarrhea. These precautions also took into consideration the extremely high mortality rate from Ebola.

At that time in 2015, I was working as a public health professional, and was involved in the determination of the best procedures to prevent cross-contamination when transferring a deceased patient with Ebola to the hospital morgue or elsewhere. A team of doctors, nurses and public health practitioners developed a protocol in a biocontainment unit with a patient mannequin and special chemical markers that could reveal contamination of surfaces via ultraviolet light.

This team was able to determine that multiple body bags were needed to prevent external contamination of the body bags being used. A careful manipulation of the patient, the bedding, proper personal protective equipment for staff and two stretchers was needed to achieve this level of caution.

Post-mortem safety for families

For families, there are many sad realities that need to be considered in the event of a death from COVID-19. While currently families are not allowed in the hospital to visit their loved ones, deaths in the home of those suspected of COVID-19 infection have been reported.

Again, given that breathing has stopped, the risk of transmission from coughing, sneezing and other mouth secretions is no longer a concern, but contact with surfaces that the patient could have previously contaminated remains. It is known that the virus can stay viable on surfaces for days, so all nearby surfaces should be considered infectious. Family members should thoroughly clean surfaces and bedding, wearing gloves and a washable or disposable cover up, if available.

Regarding funerals, when it is deemed safe to have a small gathering, or if exposed family members have completed their 14 day quarantine period, there is guidance on safety in those situations. There is no known risk of being in the same room at a funeral or visitation service with the body of someone who has died from COVID-19.

The CDC recommends not touching, kissing or hugging the deceased, though acknowledges that touching a hand or clothing after the body has been prepared for viewing is lower risk if hand-washing can then immediately occur.

Those at higher risk of complications of COVID-19 should use extra precaution in this setting. If there are important religious or cultural practices, such as shrouding or washing of the body, funeral home staff and local cultural and religious leaders can be involved to optimize reducing the risk of exposure.

Processing of the deceased can be achieved by cremation or embalming, and burial is allowed. For people who have died outside of the United States or need transportation for funeral services, federal and state guidelines need to be followed. For international transport, bodies can be transported if cremated, if embalmed and placed in a hermetically sealed casket or if the remains are accompanied by a CDC permit. This permit must be issued by the CDC director and allows for the importation of a person known or suspected of death from a quarantinable communicable disease.

How families can prepare

1. Know your risk of complications from COVID-19.
2. Know how to care for yourself and someone sick in your home.
3. Know the warning signs of COVID-19 complications needing emergency medical care.
4. Understand your hospital policy on visitation of someone sick with COVID-19.
5. Learn the infection control and visitation policy in your family member’s nursing home or assisted living facility.
6. Discuss end-of-life decisions with loved ones: living will, advanced directives, funeral and life ceremony wishes.
7. Know the CDC recommendations for handling the deceased in the home and in funeral homes.
8. Prepare personal wills and child care plans in the event of death or prolonged hospitalization.

* * * * *
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Header image: Workers wearing protective gear remove bodies of people who have died from COVID-19 from a New Jersey nursing home morgue. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Image

Lucy Wilson, Professor of Emergency Health Services, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.