Just as greenhouses are heading into a peak harvest period, the Windsor-Essex health unit has ordered a pause in arrivals of temporary foreign workers for two weeks.
Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, acting medical officer of health for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU), has ordered businesses, including greenhouse owners to immediately cancel, suspend or postpone the arrivals of temporary foreign workers to the region in southwestern Ontario between Jan. 13 and Feb. 1.
"We're in a public health emergency in Windsor-Essex and the burden of COVID-19 among the migrant farm worker community at this time exceeds the community resources," Nesathurai said during a media briefing Wednesday.
Nesathurai said 275 migrant workers are self-isolating in the region. They have either tested positive for COVID-19 or are a close contact of a confirmed case. But officials are running out of space to care for people.
A federally funded Isolation and Recovery Centre in Windsor was empty a week ago, said Nesathurai, but it is now full, along with three other hotel sites housing individuals who are isolating.
