Hamilton study aims to curb the spread of COVID-19 among migrant workers
3 migrant farm workers have died in Ontario from COVID-19, including a 24-year-old from Mexico
A group of doctors is testing some of Hamilton's migrant farm workers once a week for COVID-19 as part of a study looking at how the virus behaves in congregate settings.
Hamilton has about 432 migrant workers staying at 80 bunkhouses in the city right now. Flamborough is the most common area for bunkhouses, with 56 in the former township.
The Hamilton Social Medicine Response Team (Hamsmart) is signing up as many migrant workers as possible to participate in the study, says Dr. Tim O'Shea, a Hamsmart founder and associate professor of infectious diseases at McMaster University.
His team hopes to test the workers for COVID-19 every week to catch cases before patients show symptoms, O'Shea said. The findings will help the team understand how regular testing impacts the spread of the virus in congregate settings — information that will help homeless shelters, long-term care homes, or any environment where people live together.
The team has already tested people in local homeless shelters since April, he said. That project includes Hamilton Public Health Services and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton.
But migrant workers are an area of special attention in Ontario now. Three workers from Mexico have died — one in Norfolk County and two in Windsor-Essex. The youngest was 24.
Locally, 199 of the 221 migrant workers at Scotlynn Group in Vittoria fell ill with the virus, as well as 18 others connected to the farm. Juan Lopez Chaparro, 55, died in a London hospital on June 20.
Workers hiding their illness
Scott Biddle, the owner of Scotlynn Group, says the rest of the workers are out of isolation and have returned to the farm.
The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit's medical officer of health, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, has also issued a Section 22 order mandating that only three newly arrived workers can self isolate in a bunkhouse at once, regardless of the floor space. A group of local farmers is fighting that order, saying the three-per-bunkhouse rule is arbitrary.
Marlene Miranda, Haldimand-Norfolk's general manager of health and social services, told the board of health in early July that some workers have tried to hide their illness, fearful that they'll lose money or be sent home.
O'Shea could be facing a similar dynamic in getting workers to sign up for the research project.
"There are going to be some barriers, just in terms of getting trust from the farm workers themselves in terms of what the test entails, and what it means to get a positive result," O'Shea said.
Lukewarm interest so far
Some farmers are reluctant too, not keen on having outside people visit the farm during a pandemic.
"Thus far, the interest has been … I would say lukewarm," he said. "There's been a few farms interested in having us come out, and others who are, at this point in time, not interested."
O'Shea said the team has done more than 2,000 tests in the Hamilton shelter system. So far, no one has tested positive.
"On one hand, that's great," he said. "On the other, it hasn't helped us answer the question."
"The hope is that we're able to identify cases early enough that we can get people into isolation before it spreads, and hopefully prevent some of the other outbreaks we've seen in other areas of Ontario."
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