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Funeral Home Directors Say They Need COVID-19 Vaccines Now

Melissa Sullivan, Ex. Director, Ohio Funeral Directors Association
Jo Ingles
Melissa Sullivan, Ex. Director, Ohio Funeral Directors Association

Ohio’s funeral home directors are lobbying state leaders to be given priority in the COVID-19 vaccination plans.

Melissa Sullivan with the Ohio Funeral Directors Association says COVID-19 is a big risk for her members. She says funeral directors are often in COVID wards, retrieving bodies from patients who died of it. 

“If somebody is COVID positive at the time of their death, that virus is still infectious. I mean you can still get COVID. It can be transferred from a decedent," Sullivan says.

Sullivan says some other states have put funeral directors higher on the vaccine schedule. Right now, funeral directors, as well as police officers, are not part of the 1B schedule for vaccination in Ohio. 

Contact Jo Ingles at jingles@statehousenews.org.
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