BOSTON — Funeral administrators had been on the front strains of the pandemic, burying the lifeless and consoling survivors, but they were not between the higher-priority groups provided early access to COVID-19 vaccines.

A monthly bill heard by a key legislative committee Monday would change that in potential community wellbeing emergencies, grouping funeral personnel with these in wellbeing care as top rated priorities for vaccine distribution.

All through the pandemic, funeral directors entered hospitals, nursing properties and even properties to collect the lifeless. In quite a few scenarios, they had been exposed to spouse and children users and survivors who ended up contaminated but hid their ailments.

“As component of the continuum of treatment, our danger through the recent pandemic was absolutely at a superior degree — probably not in the exact way as medical professionals and nurses, but surely at a vital condition,” Barbara Kazmierczak, president of the Massachusetts