by Will Driscoll
Grocery store workers in Arlington can now sign up for Covid vaccine, at https://www.arlingtonva.us/covid-19/vaccines/, and the same may be true for grocery store workers in other Virginia counties and cities.
But Arlington County is apparently not notifying grocery store workers about this option.
Grocery store managers and employers of other “frontline essential workers” in Arlington can also help their employees sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine, at a different website.
At our local Arlington grocery store, a staff person in the management office indicated they were not aware of either option, when my wife and I called. Nor is the Arlington County Public Health Division reaching out to grocery stores and other eligible employers to let them know that they can pre-register to get their employees on the vaccine list, according to a clerk in that division. The division did not immediately reply to an email inquiry.
Grocery store workers are one of 24 categories of essential workers, as listed on a link from Arlington County’s website, and can receive vaccine as part of the “Phase 1(b)” group of vaccinations. Other categories of workers eligible for vaccine in this phase are:
- Manufacturing
- Corrections Workers
- Public Transit Workers
- Childcare Teachers/Staff
Also considered frontline essential workers are K-12 Teachers/Staff workers (1b), as well as Police, Fire, and Hazmat workers (1b). Presumably Arlington County is pre-registering its own employees in both categories.
