After a respite of nearly three months, the Board of Deputies has registered the first reports of funerals where the deceased have contracted Covid since the last reports on 17th April.
As of Tuesday 13th July, there will have been 906 such funerals conducted by the community as reported to the Board of Deputies, an increase of three on the previous reporting period which ended on the 18th June.
President Marie van der Zyl said: “Every loved one lost to Covid is a tragedy. We wish bereaving families a long life, and pray that the memory of their loved ones should be for a blessing.
“Our community has received an almost three-month respite from Covid mortality. That is now at an end. We have no evidence that the community is disproportionately affected as it was in the first wave but we must remain vigilant.
“As society opens up, we must maintain good Covid practice, such as washing hands for 20 seconds, and observing mask-wearing and other social-distancing measures where appropriate. Critically, we need as many people as possible to take the vaccine. If you have not yet taken the vaccine, please do so and encourage your friends and family to do the same.”
The Board of Deputies is liaising with seven of the largest denominational burial boards to collate an indicator of deaths where Covid-19 was a factor. These denominational burial boards are: The Adath Yisroel Burial Society, the Federation of Synagogues Burial Society, the Joint Jewish Burial Board, Liberal Judaism, the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community, the United Synagogue Burial Society and the Western Charitable Foundation. The Board of Deputies has either received reports from the following regional communities, or has accounted for them through the largest denominational burial boards where they cover that particular community: Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bognor Regis, Bournemouth, Brighton and Hove, Canvey Island, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Cornwall, Darlington, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Exeter, Gateshead, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Solihull, Southend, Southport, St Annes, Stoke on Trent and Swansea. The indicator enumerates how many funerals were carried out by these burial societies and communities where COVID-19 appeared on the death certificate of the deceased. As such it covers both deaths in hospitals and in the wider community. When making comparisons of data, please note that data separate to this indicator may not have similar parameters. Please do not take successive figures as indicative of exact trend as smaller communities cannot report regularly.