DETROIT – Frontline essential workers and people over 75 will be next to receive COVID-19 vaccines, according to a vote from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee Sunday.
The CDC will make the final approval of the recommendation.
Recommended Videos
RELATED: CDC green-lights Moderna COVID vaccine, distribution begins
Currently, Phase 1B includes some workers in essential and critical industries, including workers with unique skill sets such as non-hospital or non-public health laboratories and mortuary services.
The vote recommends expanding Phase 1B to postal workers, teachers, day care staff, police officers, fire fighters, public transit workers and those who work in food supply, such as farmers and grocery store employees. The committee said the expansion of Phase 1B is to protect those who are most likely to be exposed to coronavirus.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union -- which represents more than 1 million food and retail workers, including more than 44,000 Michiganders -- applauded the recommended expansion.
Panel: People over 75, essential workers next for vaccines
The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech already is being distributed, and regulators last week gave approval to the one from Moderna Inc. that began shipping Sunday.
Earlier this month, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said health care workers and nursing home residents — about 24 million people — should be at the very front of the line for the vaccines.