Restaurants push to keep to-go cocktails and street dining mynorthwest.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mynorthwest.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The state suggests restaurant workers face less risk than other groups, including grocery store employees. Author: Katherine Cook Updated: 11:39 PM PDT March 16, 2021
VANCOUVER, Wash. Starting Wednesday, several new groups will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Washington.
Gov. Jay Inslee announced the state is entering Tier 2 of Phase 1B on Wednesday, five days ahead of schedule. The new eligibility list includes people who work in grocery stores, food processing plants and agriculture workers. Corrections and courts workers and public transit employees are also eligible. So are pregnant women over 16 and people whose disability puts them at high risk. But visibly off the list are restaurant workers.
Jason Wilson, left, a chef at The Lakehouse, a restaurant located in Bellevue, Wash., and sous chef Demetrius Parker, right, prepare dishes for the first course of a meal for diners in an outdoor tent set up on the turf at Lumen Field, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Seattle. Wilson and Parker were two of the chefs taking part in the inaugural night of the Field To Table event at stadium, which is home to the Seattle Seahawks NFL football team. Credit: (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) Why arenât we on the list? restaurant industry asks as others access vaccine
WA is reopening but many essential workers aren’t vaccinated yet
How the state chose who to inoculate first raises questions about equity especially for restaurant, grocery and transit workers.
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A man stands amid chairs in a post-vaccination waiting area at Lumen Field Event Center s COVID-19 vaccination site on March 13, 2021. (Matt M. McKnight/Crosscut)
In early March 2020, Julee Richards remembers sitting in stunned silence with her co-workers in the breakroom. COVID-19 had just been declared a global pandemic, and panicked shoppers were starting to swarm the Fred Meyer near Tacoma where Richards works as a cashier.
Over the next few weeks, a number of employees quit out of concern for their safety, leaving Richards and those who remained to manage the crowds on their own. “We barely survived through May,” she said.
Thousands of WA restaurant workers ask to be included in next vaccine phase mynorthwest.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mynorthwest.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.