Coronavirus restrictions at funerals: Social distancing to still apply

During March funerals were restricted to just 10 people and social distancing had to be enforced, meaning families had to make heartbreaking decisions about who could and couldn't farewell loved ones in person.

While indoor funerals still need to have no more than one person per four square metres, the upper cap has been lifted entirely so venues can hold as many people as they can fit under social distancing laws.

The changes for funerals come into effect immediately, while restaurants and other indoor venues will have their caps lifted on maximum attendees lifted from July 1.

Penhall Funerals funeral director Craig Ostini said he'd hoped restrictions might be loosened to one person for every two square metres, but said it looked unlikely to happen until the virus was eliminated in Australia.

However, he said the lifting of the cap wouldn't do much for anything but the biggest venues.

"They're saying unlimited but social distancing still applies so we're at a maximum at 50 here [at the funeral parlour] anyway," he said.

"Bigger churches might be able to have more but we're waiting to hear from different churches ... we rung St Joseph's they're not quite sure just yet but they're thinking about 80 or 85."

However, the changes had caused some stress, with a funeral to be held on Wednesday at St Joseph's still unsure how many people could attend.

The limit has been at 50 for a few weeks, and while it was still a "tough time" for people, it was far better than the limit of 10 or 20.

"I really felt for the families," Mr Ostini said.

"From our perspective it made running a funeral really easy because there were only 10 people there, but it was heartbreaking for families, it was terrible."

People from the same household don't need to social distance, but Mr Ostini said at funerals it was hard to enforce the 1.5m spacing between people who were grieving.

"We try and do it but you can only do so much," he said.