Emergency teams sent to quell virus outbreaks on farms
200 migrant workers in Leamington are being retested for COVID-19
Premier Doug Ford has apologized for accusing farm workers in Leamington of hiding from COVID-19 tests, and has deployed Emergency Management Ontario to help quell a major outbreak at a massive greenhouse farm there.
“It’s all hands on deck” in an effort to control the spread of the highly contagious novel coronavirus and keep area farms open so produce like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers can be harvested before spoiling, Ford said Friday.
There are at least 8,000 migrant farm workers in Essex County, supplemented by local hires, and hundreds have tested positive in the last few months, putting their health and the food supply at risk.
Ford blamed “misinformation” for his error — which raised the ire of groups representing migrant farm workers — and said almost 200 people who tested positive at the unnamed Leamington operation are being retested.
“When there’s misinformation, you stand up here, you apologize and you move forward and you work with people,” Ford told his daily news conference at Queen’s Park, declining to specify where the wrong details originated.
The greenhouse operation was effectively shuttered on Wednesday when Dr. Wajid Ahmend, chief medical officer of the Windsor—Essex County Health Unit, ordered the owner to isolate workers “until further notice” and barred the hiring of replacements.
Ford said Thursday that “all the workers went and hid” when retesting was attempted and questioned the wisdom of the shutdown, which he said could discourage farmers from getting their staff tested.
That prompted the advocacy group Justice For Migrant Workers to note some farm workers say they have been denied access to testing by employers who fear the revelation of more cases of COVID-19 could hurt their ability to plant, harvest, package and ship produce to grocery stores.
“First, Doug Ford blamed our local medical officer of health, then he blamed the farmers, and yesterday he even tried to shift the blame on migrant workers for ‘hiding’ from tests,” said New Democrat MPP Taras Natyshak (Essex), who urged Ford to visit the area this weekend to see the situation for himself.
“Today, Doug Ford is blaming ‘misinformation’ for his failures. Ford never takes responsibility,” the MPP added.
“Experts have been warning for weeks that people living and working in close quarters would be a high risk of contracting COVID-19. If Ford had listened and taken action, we could have prevented these outbreaks that have led to avoidable deaths and hundreds of infections,” Natyshak said.
Two migrant workers from Mexico have died after working on Essex County farms.
Emergency Management Ontario is working with the Red Cross, local health officials and Spanish translators house, feed and arrange medical care for the almost 200 workers who tested positive at the greenhouse operation or others deemed to have close contact requiring isolation.
“The EMO is helping to coordinate, to make sure the workers have the best care, the best housing, the best accommodation, food and support, both from a psychosocial point of view and a physical point of view,” said Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer, who is leading the testing program and assisting with the response. Some workers are being placed in isolation in hotels and others are in bunkhouses on farms, he added.
“All of them are being carefully monitored.”