BUFFALO, N.Y. — Nursing home residents and healthcare workers are known to be among the first to be receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, but they're not alone.
Other frontline workers are now being included, including funeral home directors and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).
Nursing homes have already received vaccine doses, according to the Erie County Health Commissioner.
"Initial does have been delivered to hospitals and nursing homes," said Dr. Gale Burstein.
The McGuire Group has several nursing homes in Western New York. They are among the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for their residents and staff.
In a statement, a spokesperson said "vaccinations will begin at our Northgate Health Care Facility in North Tonawanda tomorrow, December 22nd, with the rest following next week."
Many nursing homes across the state and country are beginning vaccinations this week as part of a national program.
"The vaccine will be administered in-house by Pharmacists from Walgreen's, which has partnered with CMS and CDC. The vaccine is voluntary, and all those who receive it must provide an informed consent in the form of a phone call, email or in writing before receiving the vaccine."
The priority group now includes some federal health center workers, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and funeral home workers.
Mike Lanotte is executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association.
"We do anticipate that there are doses that are coming in to be used for funeral directors we expect around mid week that they will actually start the scheduling process," Lanotte said.
Lanotte explained why they are a priority.
"It's possible that the virus lives on after someone passes away so there are extra precautions that funeral directors normally take when working for and caring for a decedent," Lanotte said.
There are about 5,000 funeral directors and staff in the state who could qualify for the vaccine.
On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a state vaccine equity task force, which come up with a plan to make sure all are vaccinated who want it. The Buffalo branch NAACP President Mark Blue is on the task force.
Community vaccination kits will also be rolled out to areas across the state. Shipping containers will have everything a community might need, according to Gov. Cuomo, from computers to medicines. The kits are meant for areas that have limited access to healthcare resources.
Over 346,000 Moderna doses and 120,000 more Pfizer doses are arriving this week.
As for the general population, Dr. Burstein said "it's going to be awhile, it definitely won't be until next year and probably later on in the summer."