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The North Carolina essential critical infrastructure workforce list was developed in consultation with federal agency partners, industry experts, and State and local officials, and is based on several key principles.

Functioning critical infrastructure is imperative during the response to the COVID-19 emergency for both public health and safety as well as community well-being, according to the release. Certain critical infrastructure industries have a special responsibility in these times to continue operations. The guidance and accompanying list are intended to support State, Local, and industry partners in identifying the critical infrastructure sectors and the essential workers needed to maintain the services and functions Americans depend on daily and that need to be able to operate resiliently during the COVID-19 pandemic response.

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. Feedback can be sent to CISA.CAT@CISA.DHS.GOV.

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 (including materials used in
radioactive drugs), 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 workremotely
• Workers who support food, shelter, and social services, and other necessities of life for economically
disadvantaged or otherwise needy individuals, such as those residing inshelters
• 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, air
medical, and corrections, including front line and management
• Emergency Medical Service Technicians
• 911 call center employees
• Fusion Center employees
• Hazardous material responders from government and the privatesector.
• Workers – including contracted vendors — who maintain, manufacture, or supply digital systems
infrastructure supportinglaw 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 foodemployees
• 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 supplydomestically
• Farm workers and support service workers to include those who field crops; commodity inspection; fuel ethanol facilities; storage facilities; and other agriculturalinputs
• Employees and firms supporting food, feed, and beverage distribution, including warehouse workers, vendormanaged 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 feedemployees
• Workers in food testing labs in private industries and in institutions of higher education
• Workers essential for assistance programs and governmentpayments
• 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 assistancepersonnel
• 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 whosupport
• Environmental remediation/monitoring technicians
• Instrumentation, protection, and controltechnicians
Petroleum workers:
• Petroleum product storage, pipeline, marine transport, terminals, rail transport, roadtransport
• Crude oil storage facilities, pipeline, and marine transport
• Petroleum refinery facilities
• Petroleum security operations center employees and workers who support emergency responseservices
• 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 chemicalmanufacturing
• 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 compressorstations
• Underground storage of natural gas
• Natural gas processing plants, and those that deal with natural gasliquids
• 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 electricitygeneration
• 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 distributioncenters

WATER AND WASTEWATER

Employees needed to operate and maintain drinking water and wastewater/drainage infrastructure, including:
• Operational staff at waterauthorities
• Operational staff at community water systems
• Operational staff at wastewater treatmentfacilities
• Workers repairing water and wastewater conveyances and performing required sampling or monitoring
• Operational staff for water distribution andtesting
• Operational staff at wastewater collectionfacilities
• Operational staff and technical support for SCADA Controlsystems
• Chemical suppliers for wastewater and personnelprotection
• 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 oruse.
• 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, equipmentoperators
• 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 privatecompanies
• 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, includingflight crews,
maintenance, airport operations, and other on- and off- airport facilitiesworkers