Despite a push from local groups and Pittsburgh City Council for the state to prioritize food service workers in the vaccine rollout, they remain in Phase 1C.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced the remainder of their vaccine rollout plan Wednesday, scheduling Phase 1C to become eligible on April 12.
There's concern among restaurant workers it's too little, too late ahead of the state relaxing some dining and beverage restrictions on April 4.
"Restaurants in our state are set to reduce restrictions on capacity, seating, and hours on April 4th, weeks before many workers in our industry will be able to access their first dose, and months before we will have been fully vaccinated," said local group Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid in a statement on their website.
Acting State Secretary of Health Alison Beam stood by the state's plan Wednesday, saying the easing of dining restrictions is gradual with safety measures still in place.
"We are incrementally increasing the occupancy within these facilities," Beam said. "We are not at all flinging the doors wide open, and so there are still protections around how we're going to conduct ourselves when in these facilities which will be able to be operational."
However, groups like PRWA point to increasing cases in the state and Allegheny County and say relaxing dining restrictions before allowing restaurant workers to get a vaccine puts employees at risk.
"Any move by our state to reduce restaurant restrictions, especially an increase to 75% capacity, is not "incremental," as quoted by Alison Beam, but will "fling the doors open" and put unvaccinated workers in direct risk of COVID-19 infection and death," said PRWA.
Allegheny County Health Director Dr. Debra Bogen was also asked about the relaxing of dining restrictions and if Allegheny County planned to implement its own restrictions.
"The purpose of our mitigation strategies when this all started was to really, a number of things," Bogen said. "One is really to protect those most vulnerable, those 65 and older and, as I reported, we've actually done a great job of getting that population vaccinated. It also was to protect our healthcare infrastructure to make sure we didn't overload the system, and so the reasons for mitigation strategies change over time and we have to keep that all in mind as we plan for the future."
Beginning April 4, restaurants in Pennsylvania who have self-certified with the state can operate at 75 percent indoor capacity.
