Major Outbreak of COVID-19 in Migrant Workers at Ontario Farm

Dozens of migrant workers who came to Ontario this spring to help harvest asparagus, are now in hospital battling COVID 19.

 

Just last Thursday, one worker at an asparagus farm in Ontario's Norfolk County complained about symptoms. In just a matter of days, more than half of the 216 migrant workers have now tested positive. Several of them are in hospital, including 2 in intensive care. That's also resulted in a temporary shutdown of production as only a couple dozen workers can work in the fields. The workers, most of them from Mexico, entered Canada earlier this spring, and spent the first 14 days in isolation when they arrived here. They all came out of the quarantine healthy and nobody showed any symptoms prior to Thursday.  There are concerns the outbreak on this one farm will spread to other parts of the county, including a local grocery store.  According to the farm owner, the workers attended the store at times when other people in the community were not present.   The staff at the grocery store are being tested for the virus as well.