The Windsor Essex County Health Unit is clarifying the order it made to an Essex County farm, saying it deals with its employees and not the operation of the farm itself.
The order issued by the Medical Officer of Health on July 1 requires the owner/operator of the farm to ensure the isolation of workers and prohibits them from working until further direction.
The order came after 191 workers at the farm tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.
"The workers, the positive and the negative workers, and the close contacts of positive cases are not working. They're in isolation," said Theresa Marentette, chief executive officer at the Windsor Essex County Health Unit.
The order does not force the farm site to shut down, however, it does prohibit it from hiring any contract workers to fill the positions of the isolated workers.
Targeted testing at other sites throughout Leamington and Kingsville continues this week.
"They have completed some further testing with some very favourable results where there are either no positives or very few," said Marentette.
On Thursday the health unit reported three new cases of COVID-19. Two are linked to the farm sector and one is a community case.
