On December 20, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based on recommendations from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) issued guidelines that suggested that construction workers receive COVID-19 vaccinations in the third phase. The third phase comes after vaccinations have been distributed to frontline essential workers, individuals with underlying conditions, and those 65 and older. Depending on how the vaccination process is going for those groups, the third tier is anticipated to start late February and continue through late spring 2021, although that will vary from state to state.
Construction work has continued throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic and construction workers were classified as essential workers. The CDC's vaccine roll-out guidelines are based on this classification. The reason for the third tier is the designation between "frontline essential" and "essential" In general this is a guidance from the CDC that state and local officials will use a baseline for their distribution, but tiers may vary from state to state. Please check state and local government vaccine plans for specifics.
Here is the breakdown of the tiers of phase 1 of the COVID-19 vaccination from the CDC. The CDC states that once vaccine availability increases the recommendations will expand to include more groups and the phases may have some overlap.
Phase 1a
- Healthcare personnel
- Residents of long-term care facilities
Phase 1b:
- People aged 75 and older
- Firefighters
- Police Officers
- Corrections Officers
- Food and agricultural workers
- United States Postal Service (USPS)
- Manufacturing
- Grocery store workers
- Public Transit
- Education (teachers, support staff, and daycare workers)
Phase 1c:
- People aged 65-74 years
- People aged 16-64 with underlying medical conditions
- Transportation and logistics workers
- Food service
- Construction
- IT
- Communications
- Energy
- Law
- Media
- Public Safety and Health
