Chatham-Kent's top doctor says housing standards for migrant workers may have to be revised to prevent future pandemics at farm and greenhouse operations after another 17 migrant workers at Greenhill Produce tested positive for COVID-19.
Chatham-Kent's Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby said they were not designed for pandemic prevention.
During a media briefing Thursday, Colby said the virus is spreading mainly in the bunkhouses at Greenhill and there are no plans to move workers out of that environment because "there's no other place for them to go."
Colby said bunkhouses are a very good method for isolating people, and separating negative cases from positive cases was a sound strategy. He said the bunkhouse environment used in Ontario and inspected yearly by CK Public Health and other agencies is not, in any way, substandard accommodation but may have to be reviewed with regard to pandemic prevention.
"Having to design accommodations to prevent pandemic spread is not a criteria that has been used before. But definitely we'll have to re-look at that as a society," he said.
Colby said an investigation is underway to determine if the local Kent Bridge greenhouse workers caught the virus from 12 infected contract workers transported from Leamington.
"I'm not sure who was infected first to be quite honest," he said. "Who infected whom first is an open question."
The contract workers from Leamington with the virus are counted by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit and are all isolating.
Dr. Colby said he retested the entire workforce at Greenhill Produce again as a precaution and is waiting for 249 test results. Approximately 135 migrants from Jamaica, Mexico, and Guatemala are employed by the local greenhouse with another roughly 115 workers from the community who don't live in the seven bunkhouses.
The doctor said he can't rule out the 14-day quarantine was broken and added the migrant workers did not go back to work too soon. He said they were exposed to COVID-19 before testing negative and were separated from those who tested positive initially before being tested again and testing positive after isolation.
Colby said he's frustrated with the outbreak, the largest in Chatham-Kent and responsible for two-thirds of the total confirmed cases reported in the area.
"We're handling this very, very carefully and very scrupulously and we don't believe cases are slipping between our fingers," the doctor said. "It was an added precaution to retest these guys."
He said the 17 infected migrant workers are back in isolation but are not really ill. Dr. Colby said negative test results are just a snapshot in time and a person can turn positive six days after the test because the swab was taken too soon.
Colby said other greenhouses across Chatham-Kent are not being tested because it's part of the public health strategy to not screen the entire community.
Colby is also frustrated with the testing backlog due to a large number of long term care testing province-wide and said there's a major problem with testing. He said lab test results are back to a five to seven-day delay because the "excellent" lab system is overloaded with tests. Tests were being turned around within 24-48 hours a few weeks ago.
Meanwhile, farmers are getting more financial help to better protect their workers and keep people fed.
The federal and provincial governments announced $2.25 million on Thursday through the Agri-food Workplace Protection Program to help farmers enhance health and safety measures to prevent the spread of the virus during COVID-19. The funding will be used for initiatives like buying personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning and disinfection, and redesigning workstations.
Support is also available for farmers who experience unexpected costs for housing and transportation as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak among employees living at the farm.
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is now accepting applications.