The regional health unit has issued an order prohibiting employees of farms in Simcoe County and Muskoka from working on more than one farm and requiring farm owners to follow a new set of infection control rules.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit announced the order today. It is the first issued by the local health unit under the Health Protection and Promotion Act during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There have been 22 cases of COVID-19 associated with confirmed workplace outbreaks at two farms in Simcoe County.
The order issued Wednesday requires all owners and operators of farms in the region who employ farm workers, including temporary foreign workers, local workers, and temporary help agency workers to follow a list of actions “to protect their labour force.”
Local medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner is away this week. In his absence, the region’s associate medical officer of health, Dr. Colin Lee, issued the order.
“The order will strengthen our resolve and efforts to prevent and control current and future outbreaks,” Lee said in a news release. “The spread of COVID-19 (in migrant farm workers) in our region and Ontario tells us that they continue to be vulnerable due to the nature of their working and living conditions.”
The health unit’s order requires daily screening of all employees by asking a set of health questions at the start of the shift. Those who fail the screening must be excluded from work and recommended for testing.
The order also requires farm employers to make sure any employees, both current and future, are working exclusively at one farm.
Those currently working at more than one farm must “immediately” limit their work to one location.
This rule is similar to one enacted by the province for health-care workers, prohibiting staff from working at more than one long-term care facility.
Employers must also make sure anyone working on the farm is assigned to the same team or “work pod” and those teams must be separated from other individuals and teams.
The order from the health unit also requires those who employ farm workers to provide updated contact information for all their employees to the health unit, when requested, to support COVID-19 contact tracing.
Once a person has been identified by the health unit for case and contact management, the employer is also responsible for making sure that employee has ongoing access to a cellphone or landline.
According to a news release by the health unit, today’s order is in response to a “strong recommendation” from the province’s medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams.
The province is seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases at farms attributed to outbreaks among the workforce.
Three temporary foreign workers have died in Ontario of COVID-19, and hundreds of workers across the province have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Premier Doug Ford noted on Monday farms employing temporary foreign workers will see expanded inspections this month.
Dr. Gardner said last week he and the health unit have been in contact with the local farms in outbreak and he’s watching other jurisdictions closely.
“I am well aware of the large number of farms that have been affected, the large number of farm workers that have been infected” in southern Ontario, he said. “Therefore it is a dangerous situation that we have to manage diligently and carefully.”
— With files from Marg. Bruineman
