This interim list identifies “essential workers” as those who conduct a range of operations and services in industries that are essential to ensure the continuity of critical functions in the United States (U.S.). Essential workers were originally described by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA):“Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response, (Version 4.0; August 18, 2020).” This list maps the CISA guidance to standardized industry codes and titles for ease of use.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) comprises medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines in the civilian population of the United States. The recommendations stand as public health guidance for safe use of vaccines and related biological products. ACIP recommended phased allocation of COVID-19 vaccines while vaccine supply is limited, with expansion of populations recommended for vaccination as COVID-19 vaccine supply allows. Phase 1a includes healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents. Phase 1b includes persons ≥75 years of age and frontline essential workers. Phase 1c includes persons 65-74 years of age, persons 16-64 years of age with high-risk medical conditions, and essential workers not recommended in Phase 1a or 1b.
ACIP Categories of Essential Workers (Phase)
- Essential Healthcare Workers (1a): All paid and unpaid persons serving in healthcare settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials. This includes persons not directly involved in patient care, but potentially exposed to infectious agents while working in a healthcare setting
- Essential Non-Healthcare Workers: Workers who are essential to maintain critical infrastructure and continue critical services and functions
- Frontline essential workers (1b): The subset of essential workers likely at highest risk for work-related exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, because their work-related duties must be performed on-site and involve being in close proximity (<6 feet) to the public or to coworkers
- Other essential workers (1c): Essential workers not included in Phase 1a or 1b
The interim CDC list that follows is intended to help state, local, tribal, and territorial officials and organizations prepare for the allocation of initially limited COVID-19 vaccine supply by mapping essential industries to corresponding COVID-19 vaccination phases and workforce categories, as recommended by ACIP. Standardized codes and titles may not perfectly align with the populations of workers described by CISA and ACIP. Other mapping approaches may produce slight variations of this list.
While this list may aid in classification of worker populations, other considerations may also factor into COVID-19 vaccine prioritization decisions. For example, racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately represented in many essential industries, which may be contributing to COVID-19 racial and ethnic health disparities. Jurisdictions may want to consider the distribution of the workforce in these industries as they prioritize vaccine allocation.
For more information on industry and occupation codes, please see the web page: Collecting and Using Industry and Occupation Data. Additional information and resources will be shared by CDC as they become available.
Essential Industry Classification Based on CISA Guidance
In this list, industries are identified using the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). NAICS codes are hierarchical; the first two digits represent general categories of economic activities, and each subsequent digit provides another level of detail. CDC mapped standardized industry codes and titles to the most current (v4.0) CISA Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce (ECIW) list noted previously, identifying each essential industry within an ECIW sector. The CISA guidance is highly inclusive and aims to identify the full breadth of the essential critical infrastructure workforce. It also primarily describes industries (i.e., at the level of 2 to 6 digit NAICS codes), while the ACIP guidance groups workers into larger categories. The list below collapses NAICS codes into the highest level at which all (or nearly all) component industries share a single CISA essential industry designation. Some essential critical infrastructure industries described in the CISA guidance do not directly align with a worker category identified by ACIP as Essential Non-Healthcare Workers and are thus noted as “Not explicitly included” by ACIP in this list.
Sub-categories of essential workers may be prioritized differently in different jurisdictions, in accordance with local needs. Some jurisdictions may also face local factors that require the addition of industries not included on the CISA ECIW list. Jurisdictions have flexibility in weighing local economic and infrastructure needs, ethical considerations, and other equity factors in order to prioritize those working in industries in the CISA ECIW list for COVID-19 vaccine allocation.
Note about Industry vs. Occupation
The list provided below categorizes workers based on the industry (type of business) in which they work, not based on their occupation (a person’s specific job). Although workers’ status as essential under the CISA guidance is most readily determined by the industry in which they work, their exposure risk may be largely determined by their occupation. Because the most efficient vaccination allocation strategy will take both essentiality and risk into account, jurisdictions should, where feasible, make efforts to prioritize workers in occupations characterized by the inability to work remotely and the need to work in close proximity to others within the below industries, as implied by the ACIP definition of Essential Non-Healthcare Workers.
Note about Multi-employer Workplaces
The list provided below categorizes workers based on the primary industry of their workplace. Some workplaces include workers employed by a mix of employers that fall under different industry categories (NAICS codes). For workers employed by contract firms or temporary help agencies, the staffing agency and the host employer are joint employers and, therefore, both are responsible for providing and maintaining a safe work environment. Workers should be considered for vaccination prioritization according to the primary industry activities at the site(s) where they work, even if the industry category of their actual employer does not fall within these lists. If offering on-site vaccination to employees, host employers should consider offering vaccination to temporary and/or contracted employees.
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