Few eligible families have sought federal payment of COVID funeral expenses

Pews were marked off to encourage social distancing at a funeral home in Temple, Penn., in March of 2021, around the time the Delta variant began to take hold in the United States. (Ben Hasty / MediaNews Group via Getty Images)

On a humid August afternoon in 2020, two caskets – one silver, one white – sat by holes in the ground at a small, graveside service in the town of Travelers Rest, S.C.

The family had just lost a mom and dad, both to COVID.