Changes to death certification and cremation

When, late in 2019, Covid-19 was identified as the microbial agent causing a severe viral pneumonia in several patients epidemiologically linked to a seafood market in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province,1 few would have predicted that within weeks it would lead to a pandemic that is the greatest threat to global health for over a century. It has virtually monopolised the media and public discourse, and has necessitated rapid transformation in how health services, including primary care, respond. Yet this dreadful cloud may have some silver linings, allowing us to explore different ways of working and questioning whether some existing