Starting Monday, March 22, bar and restaurant workers will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Louisiana, regardless of their underlying health conditions.

Newly eligible populations also include grocery store, manufacturing, construction, clergy, postal, transportation, judiciary and media workers, faculty and staff of institutes of higher education and more frontline government workers. This group, called Priority Group 1-B, Tier Two, covers essential workers not previously eligible.

The announcement comes at a time when live music clubs are increasingly booking live music indoors and restaurants are expanding capacity under modified Phase 3 regulations in New Orleans.

This change applies to everyone 16 years and older. Currently in the United States, adults are eligible for three vaccines, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. People who are 16 and 17 are only eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine and should work with their vaccine provider to ensure they are receiving that specific vaccine. All previously eligible people in Louisiana, including people 65 and older and those with certain health conditions, also remain eligible for the COVID vaccine.

“Our vaccine strategy in Louisiana has been to make sure that we were vaccinating the most high-risk individuals to protect them from getting COVID-19 and also preserve capacity in our hospitals,” said Governor John Bel Edwards. “We’ve seen encouraging trends in our percent positivity of tests and also a drop in the number of Louisianans hospitalized with COVID. This is likely the last expansion of vaccine eligibility in Louisiana before we make the shots available to everyone 16 and older, which we are targeting for some time in April.”

For information about how bar and restaurant workers and others can get the vaccine in Louisiana and for the latest vaccine eligibility groups, visit covidvaccine.la.gov.