BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB)–You may now have to attend a funeral virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re in the business of consoling our families and it becomes difficult when you have to kind of take a step back.”

But that’s what Tameka Dixon, a licensed funeral director, says they’re doing at the Thomas T. Edwards Funeral Home in Buffalo.

Funeral directors admit its a challenge as the CDC recommends no more than 50 people attend a funeral.

“Our first priority is to make sure not only that the staff is safe but the clientele that we service that they’re safe too and the best way to go about that is to be transparent and to stagger our visitations,” Dixon said.

Funeral directors say they don’t believe cremation services will increase due to coronavirus. They say they’ve always taken universal precautions to help preserve the body of the deceased.

The CDC has said that there is currently no known risk of attending a funeral or visitation with the body of someone who has died from the virus.

Funeral director Rinaldo Moss says, “Cremation, that is an option especially if the family is worried about the coronavirus but we do have other pathogens that we deal with that we treat on a daily basis.”

He says there are other options to include people which is what the CDC now recommends.

“We do have more technological means also as far as like live streaming or online obituaries.”

Dixon says no matter what they’re here for families during what she says is already a tough time.