Health care workers, first responders and lab employees will be among the first in Nevada to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, according to a draft of the state’s vaccination plan released Monday. 

As expected, the initial round of COVID-19 vaccinations will be focused on the populations most at risk of contracting the virus, including health care providers who work in close proximity with COVID-19 patients, people at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19, including the elderly and people with underlying medical conditions, and other essential workers. Because Nevada expects to receive very few doses of the vaccine at the beginning, the vaccination plan ranks categories of Nevadans by priority to receive the vaccine.

The first two, of four, tiers include “critical infrastructure workforce,” with about 155,000 people in the first tier, including hospital staff, lab workers, pharmacists, and law enforcement officers, and about 370,000 people in the second tier, including education and childcare staff, higher education faculty, public transportation workers and retail workers.

The third tier includes long-term care facility residents, Department of Corrections inmates, the homeless population, people with underlying health conditions and the elderly — grouped together as “people at increased risk for severe illness or of acquiring/transmitting COVID-19,” or about 2.3 million people — while the fourth and final tier includes all healthy adults aged 18 to 64, about 620,000 people. 

Sisolak, in a press conference announcing the draft plan, said that while there is no approved vaccine yet, Nevada will be ready to distribute and administer doses when they become available.

Continue reading the article at The Nevada Independent. This story was originally published on October 26 and written by Megan Messerly.