Are you an "essential worker"?

3/24/2020

The following list of sectors and identified essential critical infrastructure workers are an initial recommended set and are intended to be overly inclusive reflecting the diversity of industries across the United States. CISA will continually solicit and accept feedback on the list (both sectors/sub sectors and identified essential workers) and will evolve the list in response to stakeholder feedback. We will also use our various stakeholder engagement mechanisms to work with partners on how they are using this list and share those lessons learned and best practices broadly. We ask that you share your feedback, both positive and negative on this list so we can provide the most useful guidance to our critical infrastructure partners. Source: https://www.cisa.gov/publication/guidance-essential-critical-infrastructure-workforce

HEALTHCARE / PUBLIC HEALTH

Workers providing COVID-19 testing; Workers that perform critical clinical research needed for COVID-19 response
Caregivers (e.g., physicians, dentists, psychologists, mid-level practitioners, nurses and assistants, infection control and quality assurance personnel, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapists and assistants, social workers, speech pathologists and diagnostic and therapeutic technicians and technologists)
Hospital and laboratory personnel (including accounting, administrative, admitting and discharge, engineering, epidemiological, source plasma and blood donation, food service, housekeeping, medical records, information technology and operational technology, nutritionists, sanitarians, respiratory therapists, etc.)
Workers in other medical facilities (including Ambulatory Health and Surgical, Blood Banks, Clinics, Community Mental Health, Comprehensive Outpatient rehabilitation, End Stage Renal Disease, Health Departments, Home Health care, Hospices, Hospitals, Long Term Care, Organ Pharmacies, Procurement Organizations, Psychiatric Residential, Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers)
Manufacturers, technicians, logistics and warehouse operators, and distributors of medical equipment, personal protective equipment (PPE), medical gases, pharmaceuticals, blood and blood products, vaccines, testing materials, laboratory supplies, cleaning, sanitizing, disinfecting or sterilization supplies, and tissue and paper towel products
Public health / community health workers, including those who compile, model, analyze and communicate public health information
Blood and plasma donors and the employees of the organizations that operate and manage related activities
Workers that manage health plans, billing, and health information, who cannot practically work remotely
Workers who conduct community-based public health functions, conducting epidemiologic surveillance, compiling, analyzing and communicating public health information, who cannot practically work remotely
Workers performing cybersecurity functions at healthcare and public health facilities, who cannot practically work remotely
Workers conducting research critical to COVID-19 response
Workers performing security, incident management, and emergency operations functions at or on behalf of healthcare entities including healthcare coalitions, who cannot practically work remotely
Workers who support food, shelter, and social services, and other necessities of life for economically disadvantaged or otherwise needy individuals, such as those residing in shelters
Pharmacy employees necessary for filling prescriptions
Workers performing mortuary services, including funeral homes, crematoriums, and cemetery workers
Workers who coordinate with other organizations to ensure the proper recovery, handling, identification, transportation, tracking, storage, and disposal of human remains and personal effects; certify cause of death; and facilitate access to mental/behavioral health services to the family members, responders, and survivors of an incident

LAW ENFORCEMENT, PUBLIC SAFETY, FIRST RESPONDERS

Personnel in emergency management, law enforcement, Emergency Management Systems, fire, and corrections, including front line and management
Emergency Medical Technicians
911 call center employees
Fusion Center employees
Hazardous material responders from government and the private sector.
Workers – including contracted vendors -- who maintain, manufacture, or supply digital systems infrastructure supporting law enforcement emergency service, and response operations.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

Workers supporting groceries, pharmacies, convenience stores and other retail that sells human food, animal/pet food, and beverage products
Restaurant carry-out and quick serve food operations - Carry-out and delivery food employees
Food manufacturer employees and their supplier employees—to include those employed in food processing (packers, meat processing, cheese plants, milk plants, produce, etc.) facilities; livestock, poultry, seafood slaughter facilities; pet and animal feed processing facilities; human food facilities producing by-products for animal food; beverage production facilities; and the production of food packaging
Farm workers to include those employed in animal food, feed, and ingredient production, packaging, and distribution; manufacturing, packaging, and distribution of veterinary drugs; truck delivery and transport; farm and fishery labor needed to produce our food supply domestically
Farm workers and support service workers to include those who field crops; commodity inspection; fuel ethanol facilities; storage facilities; and other agricultural inputs
Employees and firms supporting food, feed, and beverage distribution, including warehouse workers, vendor-managed inventory controllers and blockchain managers
Workers supporting the sanitation of all food manufacturing processes and operations from wholesale to retail
Company cafeterias - in-plant cafeterias used to feed employees
Workers in food testing labs in private industries and in institutions of higher education
Workers essential for assistance programs and government payments
Employees of companies engaged in the production, storage, transport, and distribution of chemicals, medicines, vaccines, and other substances used by the food and agriculture industry, including pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, minerals, enrichments, and other agricultural production aids
Animal agriculture workers to include those employed in veterinary health; manufacturing and distribution of animal medical materials, animal vaccines, animal drugs, feed ingredients, feed, and bedding, etc.; transportation of live animals, animal medical materials; transportation of deceased animals for disposal; raising of animals for food; animal production operations; slaughter and packing plants, renderers, and associated regulatory and government workforce
Workers who support the manufacture and distribution of forest products, including, but not limited to timber, paper, and other wood products
Employees engaged in the manufacture and maintenance of equipment and other infrastructure necessary to agricultural production and distribution

ENERGY
Electricity industry:

Workers who maintain, ensure, or restore, or are involved in the development, transportation, fuel procurement, expansion, or operation of the generation, transmission, and distribution of electric power, including call centers, utility workers, reliability engineers and fleet maintenance technicians
Workers needed for safe and secure operations at nuclear generation
Workers at generation, transmission and electric blackstart facilities
Workers at Reliability Coordinator (RC), Balancing Authorities (BA), and primary and backup Control Centers (CC), including but not limited to independent system operators, regional transmission organizations, and balancing authorities
Mutual assistance personnel
IT and OT technology staff – for EMS (Energy Management Systems) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, and utility data centers; Cybersecurity engineers; cybersecurity risk management
Vegetation management crews and traffic workers who support
Environmental remediation/monitoring technicians
Instrumentation, protection, and control technicians

Petroleum workers:

Petroleum product storage, pipeline, marine transport, terminals, rail transport, road transport
Crude oil storage facilities, pipeline, and marine transport
Petroleum refinery facilities
Petroleum security operations center employees and workers who support emergency response services
Petroleum operations control rooms/centers
Petroleum drilling, extraction, production, processing, refining, terminal operations, transporting, and retail for use as end-use fuels or feedstocks for chemical manufacturing
Onshore and offshore operations for maintenance and emergency response
Retail fuel centers such as gas stations and truck stops, and the distribution systems that support them

Natural and propane gas workers:

Natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines, including compressor stations
Underground storage of natural gas
Natural gas processing plants, and those that deal with natural gas liquids
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities
Natural gas security operations center, natural gas operations dispatch and control rooms/centers natural gas emergency response and customer emergencies, including natural gas leak calls
Drilling, production, processing, refining, and transporting natural gas for use as end-use fuels, feedstocks for chemical manufacturing, or use in electricity generation
Propane gas dispatch and control rooms and emergency response and customer emergencies, including propane leak calls
Propane gas service maintenance and restoration, including call centers
Processing, refining, and transporting natural liquids, including propane gas, for use as end-use fuels or feedstocks for chemical manufacturing
Propane gas storage, transmission, and distribution centers

WATER AND WASTEWATER
Employees needed to operate and maintain drinking water and wastewater/drainage infrastructure, including:

Operational staff at water authorities
Operational staff at community water systems
Operational staff at wastewater treatment facilities
Workers repairing water and wastewater conveyances and performing required sampling or monitoring
Operational staff for water distribution and testing
Operational staff at wastewater collection facilities
Operational staff and technical support for SCADA Control systems
Chemical suppliers for wastewater and personnel protection
Workers that maintain digital systems infrastructure supporting water and wastewater operations

TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS

Employees supporting or enabling transportation functions, including truck drivers, bus drivers, dispatchers, maintenance and repair technicians, warehouse workers, truck stop and rest area workers, and workers that maintain and inspect infrastructure (including those that require cross-jurisdiction travel)
Employees of firms providing services that enable logistics operations, including cooling, storing, packaging, and distributing products for wholesale or retail sale or use.
Mass transit workers
Workers responsible for operating dispatching passenger, commuter and freight trains and maintaining rail infrastructure and equipment
Maritime transportation workers - port workers, mariners, equipment operators
Truck drivers who haul hazardous and waste materials to support critical infrastructure, capabilities, functions, and services
Automotive repair and maintenance facilities
Manufacturers and distributors (to include service centers and related operations) of packaging materials, pallets, crates, containers, and other supplies needed to support manufacturing, packaging staging and distribution operations
Postal and shipping workers, to include private companies
Employees who repair and maintain vehicles, aircraft, rail equipment, marine vessels, and the equipment and infrastructure that enables operations that encompass movement of cargo and passengers
Air transportation employees, including air traffic controllers and maintenance personnel, ramp workers, aviation and aerospace safety, security, and operations personnel and accident investigations
Workers who support the maintenance and operation of cargo by air transportation, including flight crews, maintenance, airport operations, and other on- and off- airport facilities workers

PUBLIC WORKS

Workers who support the operation, inspection, and maintenance of essential dams, locks and levees
Workers who support the operation, inspection, and maintenance of essential public works facilities and operations, including bridges, water and sewer main breaks, fleet maintenance personnel, construction of critical or strategic infrastructure, traffic signal maintenance, emergency location services for buried utilities, maintenance of digital systems infrastructure supporting public works operations, and other emergent issues
Workers such as plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and other service providers who provide services that are necessary to maintaining the safety, sanitation, and essential operation of residences
Support, such as road and line clearing, to ensure the availability of needed facilities, transportation, energy and communications
Support to ensure the effective removal, storage, and disposal of residential and commercial solid waste and hazardous waste

COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Communications:

Maintenance of communications infrastructure- including privately owned and maintained communication systems- supported by technicians, operators, call-centers, wireline and wireless providers, cable service providers, satellite operations, undersea cable landing stations (including cable marine depots and submarine cable ship operators), Internet Exchange Points, and manufacturers and distributors of communications equipment
Workers who support radio, television, and media service, including, but not limited to front line news reporters, studio, and technicians for newsgathering and reporting
Workers at Independent System Operators and Regional Transmission Organizations, and Network Operations staff, engineers and/or technicians to manage the network or operate facilities
Engineers, technicians and associated personnel responsible for infrastructure construction and restoration, including contractors for construction and engineering of fiber optic cables
Installation, maintenance and repair technicians that establish, support or repair service as needed
Central office personnel to maintain and operate central office, data centers, and other network office facilities
Customer service and support staff, including managed and professional services as well as remote providers of support to transitioning employees to set up and maintain home offices, who interface with customers to manage or support service environments and security issues, including payroll, billing, fraud, and troubleshooting
Dispatchers involved with service repair and restoration

Information Technology:

Workers who support command centers, including, but not limited to Network Operations Command Center, Broadcast Operations Control Center and Security Operations Command Center
Data center operators, including system administrators, HVAC & electrical engineers, security personnel, IT managers, data transfer solutions engineers, software and hardware engineers, and database administrators
Client service centers, field engineers, and other technicians supporting critical infrastructure, as well as manufacturers and supply chain vendors that provide hardware and software, and information technology equipment (to include microelectronics and semiconductors) for critical infrastructure
Workers responding to cyber incidents involving critical infrastructure, including medical facilities, SLTT governments and federal facilities, energy and utilities, and banks and financial institutions, and other critical infrastructure categories and personnel
Workers supporting the provision of essential global, national and local infrastructure for computing services (incl. cloud computing services), business infrastructure, web-based services, and critical manufacturing
Workers supporting communications systems and information technology used by law enforcement, public safety, medical, energy and other critical industries
Support required for continuity of services, including janitorial/cleaning personnel

OTHER COMMUNITY-BASED GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Workers to ensure continuity of building functions
Security staff to maintain building access control and physical security measures
Elections personnel
Federal, State, and Local, Tribal, and Territorial employees who support Mission Essential Functions and communications networks
Trade Officials (FTA negotiators; international data flow administrators)
Weather forecasters
Workers that maintain digital systems infrastructure supporting other critical government operations
Workers at operations centers necessary to maintain other essential functions
Workers who support necessary credentialing, vetting and licensing operations for transportation workers
Customs workers who are critical to facilitating trade in support of the national emergency response supply chain
Educators supporting public and private K-12 schools, colleges, and universities for purposes of facilitating distance learning or performing other essential functions, if operating under rules for social distancing
Hotel Workers where hotels are used for COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures

CRITICAL MANUFACTURING

Workers necessary for the manufacturing of materials and products needed for medical supply chains, and for supply chains associated with transportation, energy, communications, food and agriculture, chemical manufacturing, nuclear facilities, the operation of dams, water and wastewater treatment, emergency services, and the defense industrial base. Additionally, workers needed to maintain the continuity of these manufacturing functions and associated supply chains.

HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

Workers at nuclear facilities, workers managing medical waste, workers managing waste from pharmaceuticals and medical material production, and workers at laboratories processing test kits
Workers who support hazardous materials response and cleanup
Workers who maintain digital systems infrastructure supporting hazardous materials management operations

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Workers who are needed to process and maintain systems for processing financial transactions and services (e.g., payment, clearing, and settlement; wholesale funding; insurance services; and capital markets activities)
Workers who are needed to provide consumer access to banking and lending services, including ATMs, and to move currency and payments (e.g., armored cash carriers)
Workers who support financial operations, such as those staffing data and security operations centers

CHEMICAL

Workers supporting the chemical and industrial gas supply chains, including workers at chemical manufacturing plants, workers in laboratories, workers at distribution facilities, workers who transport basic raw chemical materials to the producers of industrial and consumer goods, including hand sanitizers, food and food additives, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and paper products.
Workers supporting the safe transportation of chemicals, including those supporting tank truck cleaning facilities and workers who manufacture packaging items
Workers supporting the production of protective cleaning and medical solutions, personal protective equipment, and packaging that prevents the contamination of food, water, medicine, among others essential products
Workers supporting the operation and maintenance of facilities (particularly those with high risk chemicals and/or sites that cannot be shut down) whose work cannot be done remotely and requires the presence of highly trained personnel to ensure safe operations, including plant contract workers who provide inspections
Workers who support the production and transportation of chlorine and alkali manufacturing, single-use plastics, and packaging that prevents the contamination or supports the continued manufacture of food, water, medicine, and other essential products, including glass container manufacturing

DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE

Workers who support the essential services required to meet national security commitments to the federal government and U.S. Military. These individuals, include but are not limited to, aerospace; mechanical and software engineers, manufacturing/production workers; IT support; security staff; security personnel; intelligence support, aircraft and weapon system mechanics and maintainers
Personnel working for companies, and their subcontractors, who perform under contract to the Department of Defense providing materials and services to the Department of Defense, and government-owned/contractor-operated and government-owned/government-operated facilities

2 Comments

Kelly Mitchell

3/30/2020 12:14:57 pm

You really need to make an announcement to shut down salons and barber shops there is no way salons 10 work and use the CDC guidelines given I am a hairdresser of 38 years and would like to see this happen for the sake of the clients and the sake of the stylist

Katie

3/30/2020 12:39:08 pm

To be clear, it is only a government entity who could make that call. The Chamber of Commerce is an independent non-profit business association.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Blog

Are you an "essential worker"?

Leave a Reply.

Upcoming Events

Our Sponsors