US: Vaccine rollout uneven for grocery store workers

As panicked Americans cleared supermarkets of toilet paper and food last spring, grocery employees gained recognition as among the most indispensable of the pandemic's front-line workers.

A year later, most of those workers are waiting their turn to receive COVID-19 vaccines, with little clarity about when it may come.

The country's chaotic and decentralized vaccine rollout has resulted in patchwork of policies that differ from state-to-state, and even county-to-county in some areas.

The result has been an inconsistent approach to vaccinating low-paid essential workers who are exposed  to hundreds of customers each day.

When grocery chain Lidl got word from Suffolk County on Long Island that it would receive 80 appointments for its local workers, it immediately contacted those who it knew to be at highest risk.

Joseph Lupo, a Lidl supervisor who fell ill with the virus in March, was elated to get his first vaccine dose.

"I never ever want to get COVID again, or see anybody else get it," said Lupo, 59.

But 50 miles west in the New York City Borough of The Bronx where many residents rely on small convenience stores, called "bodegas," for their daily shopping — workers in those stores say they have been left to navigate a patchwork system to find vaccines on their own.

Francisco Marte, who owns a small Bronx bodega, says he has been trying to get vaccinated ever since the state opened up vaccines to grocery workers, but hasn't been able to find an appointment.

Marte said he has been lobbying local officials to set aside vaccine appointments for bodega workers, many of whom are unaware they are eligible.

He hopes that the recent opening of a large vaccination site at Yankee stadium will make access easier.

The virus, meanwhile, continues its march through grocery stores.

Over the past two months, there have been 137 COVID-19 outbreaks in Southern California grocery stores, and 500 Houston grocery workers have been infected, according to the UFCW.

The union knows of 124 grocery workers who have died since the start of the pandemic.