How to Handle Those Employees Exposed to Covid-19.

As agriculture we and our employees are considered critical infrastructure. As the virus makes its way through the population, whether locked down or not, some of our employees will inevitably be exposed to someone (family member, close friend etc.) that has the virus. Being critical infrastructure, and staying working during the healthcare emergency, losing employees is not a great option but exposing your other employees to the virus isn’t a good option either.

We’ve seen what can happen in an environment such as a meat packing plant employees start to share the virus. No one wants a cotton gin to be the next hotspot of Covid-19.

The CDC has developed guidance to help critical infrastructure workers and employers deal with this situation…a situation you will have to deal with at some point. Please refer to the link below. Also download THIS DOCUMENT which is a PDF of some of the same information on how to handle these asymptomatic people.

CDC GUIDANCE ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE EMPLOYEES

In addition to CDC guidance for critical infrastructure, the Georgia Department of Agriculture (there are likely other sources as well) has developed a poster/guidance for employers where workers are housed in semi-communal setting such as H-2A or other migrant worker housing. Some other states are considering regulatory approach to such situations.

Please download and review the document from the Georgia Department of Ag HERESpanish here