Vaccine advisory committee to announce teacher priority for Covid-19 vaccines Wednesday

California’s 60-member Community Vaccine Advisory Committee is expected to announce Wednesday where teachers and other education and childcare employees will fall on the prioritization list to receive Covid-19 vaccines.

The committee was tasked with determining who should receive the state’s limited number of Covid-19 vaccines after frontline medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities. The vaccine distribution plan was split into phases, with the next cohort being “Phase 1B.”

Governor Gavin Newsom, in a press conference Monday, said the committee will “lock in” its recommendations for Phase 1B at its meeting Wednesday, which will be streamed from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the state’s covid19.ca.gov website. As it stood Monday, Phase 1B consists of two tiers, with education and childcare employees in the first tier alongside people 75 and older, Newsom said.

The committee has yet to decide if only education and childcare workers who are doing in-person instruction or care will be eligible in Phase 1B, Newsom said.

Newsom also announced Monday that he intends to propose a more than $300 million vaccine distribution program in his budget proposal this week. As of January 3, 454,305 vaccines had been administered in California, Newsom said. The state has received 1,297,000, and pharmaceutical companies have shipped 611,500 more to California.