Funeral Homes Face COVID-19 Surge

One Kansas City funeral home has seen the number of services nearly double over last year, with more than 450 performed so far. KSHB's Andres Gutierrez reports.

(NBC News) — A vaccine for COVID-19 could be approved within days, but it comes as the Kansas City area has lost so many loved ones that funeral homes are now booked weeks in advance.

“It’s emotional on the family. It’s emotional on the staff and the team as a whole,” Michael Adkins, owner of the Serenity Funeral Home, says.

Staff at the Serenity Funeral Home are working seven days a week to meet the demand as more people lose their life to COVID-19.

“But we can only do so many services a day, and so now we’re booking maybe three weeks out, and I’m talking about every day, sometimes two and three a day,” Adkins says.

In the five years Serenity Funeral Home has been in operation, its staff made arrangements for about 250 cases annually. This year, they have done more than 450 with three weeks remaining in the year.

“The way we conduct services, the way we meet with families, the way we have to operate daily, every day has changed,” Adkins says.

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