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44,000+ COVID-19 deaths later, funeral workers continue to feel pandemic's devastation firsthand

And some mortuary employees are concerned another surge is on the way with Spring Break around the corner.

SAN ANTONIO — One funeral professional has a grave warning for the community as Texas’s mask mandate prepares to expire: She says mortuaries in San Antonio are overwhelmed.

They call themselves "last responders"—the funeral and mortuary workers who focus on the families of coronavirus victims as they prepare to say their final goodbyes.

“With the whole COVID situation and how they have operated in the hospitals, they stress a lot about health care workers. But I think we kind of get lost,” said Danielle Hernandez, one of the owners of Hardin Mortuary Services.

She said that, at least at her business, they are going to continue requiring employees and guests to wear masks to protect against the coronavirus's spread. 

As of Friday, more than 44,000 Texans have died of virus complications since the pandemic began a year ago. Workers in the funeral industry experience the loss of life firsthand.

Hardin Mortuary Services works with funeral homes all over Texas. Hernandez said that, throughout the pandemic, they have been overwhelmed.

"With the surge, we, like every other funeral home here in San Antonio, were overloaded," she said.

Mortuary professional are often the first to handle someone’s body after they die, and the risk of infection can be a concern. Hernandez said it was a challenge maintaining their supply of personal protective equipment when the pandemic began.

“Naturally, as a funeral home, (a) mortuary service, we have PPE available,” she said. “The amount of work that we had to come across started to get that supply down.”

She says mortuaries like hers are still backed up from the last surge of cases from the holidays. They had to convert in-house space to extra storage for all the bodies.

Hernandez said that when she heard the mask mandate was ending, she thought it was a huge mistake.

“Lifting that right now, with not everyone able to have access to a vaccine (and) the misconception, I think, that people have of how this virus is still out there and it’s spreading, is disturbing to us as a funeral home and a mortuary service,” she said.

Hernandez’s biggest concern is what could happen if people start gathering again after the mask mandate expires in Texas.

“It’s upsetting that we’re going to have to try to prepare for another surge that I honestly believe is going to happen with Spring Break right around the corner," she said.

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