Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced that food and agricultural workers will be among those next in line for COVID-19 vaccines. The section of workers includes nearly six million in all, spanning education, childcare and emergency services as well.
These groups will be the first of California’s approximately 12 million essential workers—about two-thirds of the workforce—to be inoculated. Ag workers will be prioritized as the top tier for Phase 1B. The following tier will include those 65 and older as well as workers in the transportation, manufacturing, industrial and commercial sectors.
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A committee advising the governor noted in a recent meeting that to ensure easy access for farmworkers, the vaccines must be taken to the fields and job sites.
The first doses of the vaccines are currently being administered to the state’s frontline healthcare workers.
