TOLEDO, Ohio — When the pandemic began and restaurants, schools and everything in between shut down, one thing that did remain open were grocery stores.
Fast forward a year and grocery store workers are still not on the list of people eligible to be vaccinated. Grocery store employees are listed as frontline essential workers under the CDC's vaccination rollout recommendations, which is why many workers say they're disappointed.
The general manager of Monette's Market on Secor Road says even though they have plastic guards up, employees wear masks and take their temperatures twice before starting their shifts, dealing with the public every day is still a risk.
The store's general manager, James Towner says, "with us working on the frontline all the time like that, I think we should be included, and to have the option to take it whether or not everyone wants to or not, we should at least have the opportunity, too."
Monette's Assistant Manager Dominic Intagliata says he's taking a risk every time he walks into work.
"I understand the medical field obviously should be the first, but I also feel like everybody else that is risking themselves to provide goods and services to the public should be next in line," Intagliata said.
When Gov. DeWine was asked why vaccine eligibility remains closed to certain groups like grocery store employees, he said, "we believe that age is still the best indicator."