TMZ spoke with several prominent funeral homes in major cities across the country -- and the overall message was this ... they're scaling back, and finding innovative ways to grieve those who've passed on during the global pandemic. Prepare for morbidity, folks.

For starters, several mortuaries -- including some in Chicago, San Fran, Fort Lauderdale, New York and Los Angeles -- tell us they're planning on limiting the number of guests allowed at any given burial service in the coming weeks ... hard as that may be.

With the CDC's newest guidelines of no more than 50 bodies in one place at one time ... it sounds like just about all the parlors will attempt to honor that. The question of how is interesting though ... each spot does it differently, some with more ingenuity than others.

Chicago's Leak & Sons Funeral Home says it's considering implementing a "family only" rule for now, in hopes of keeping things compact. James C. Boyd Funeral Home in FL says it's putting a hard cap of 50 people per service ... and a morgue in NYC says they're drawing the line at just 25 at a time. A funeral joint in SF tells us they've seen customers push out funeral dates entirely, solving the problem of crowd control for them.

Now, the more innovative route is being embraced fully by a cemetery in L.A. called Hillside Memorial, where tons of celebs are buried. They say they're offering live streams as an alternative, so anyone who wants in on the service can watch from home.

Some of these other places have streaming options too, but none quite as robust as Memorial's -- which normally costs $235 a pop. Not these days though ... we're told they're waiving it in light of the new safety measures brought on by the outbreak.

So, no worries, your funeral can still get max views. 💀