Curbing the Spread of Corona Virus on the Farm

You know how to deal with controlling crop diseases, but what about controlling the spread of the COVID-19 virus throughout your workforce and preventing those employees from taking the virus home to their families?

Any good farmer first learns all they can of the symptoms, lifecycle, treatments, and spread of a disease affecting their crop, and so we must understand COVID-19.   The following information is gleaned from the Center for Disease Control:

1. COVID-19 is a new corona virus. Corona viruses often circulate among camels, cats, and bats, and sometimes evolve and infect people.   In humans, corona viruses generally cause upper respiratory infections like the common cold.  COVID-19 is a more virulent strain of coronavirus that can lead to hospitalization and even death.
2. Four percent of reported COVID-19 patients have died as of 3/23/2020. Four percent is high, as many infections go unreported, but experts are saying COVID-19 is perhaps ten times more virulent than the flu.
3. Unlike the flu, there is no COVID-19 vaccine. There is no antiviral medication known to have any effect in fighting the virus.
4. Symptoms of COVID-19 appear at five days following exposure but varies from between two to 14 days. Symptoms generally include:  cough, fever, tiredness, difficulty breathing.  Many report headaches, runny noses, fever, sore throat.  Some may have such mild symptoms that they can still spread the disease, but don’t even know they are infected.
5. Infected people are most likely to spread the disease at the height of their symptoms. The virus is likely not spread beyond 14 days following infection.
6. People with a greater risk of serious illness or death include: Older adults, people with serious chronic health problems such as: cancer, diabetes, heart or lung diseases, or sickle cell anemia.
7. Spread is via person to person inhalation of virus-containing droplets from coughing and sneezing. The virus may remain viable on surfaces for over 24 hours. Hand to nose, eye, or mouth can thus vector the disease.

People need to eat and crops are going to grow whether we are there to tend to them or not.  Without intervention, many crops would be lost.  There is no “pause” button on the farm.  Farmers need to come through and feed this Nation as they always do, regardless of any virus.  Here are some tips for limiting the spread of COVID-19 among your employees.

1. Stay at home if feeling ill. You’re the last person who should be infecting your employees.  I know how farmers are, though, so if you absolutely have to get some work done in person, wear something akin to a N95 Respirator or at least a bandana over you face.  Sneeze or cough into your bicep.  Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.  Don’t get within six feet of anyone.  Be at least twice that far from people when in an enclosed space.  Spray or wipe a disinfectant on surfaces you may have come into contact with.  Spray a disinfectant on all surfaces within the enclosed cab of a tractor before and after use.  Any tools, doorknobs, light switches, toilet flush valves, computer keyboards, pens, notebooks, coffee cups, harvesting baskets, et cetera, must be disinfected before anyone else has access to them.  Wash your hands frequently with soap and water or hand sanitizer.  And get home and rest just as soon as the essential business that only you can do is attended to.
2. Tell your employees the symptoms of COVID-19 illness and to absolutely stay home if experiencing symptoms. Tell them to seek medical help if having difficulty breathing.
3. Tell your employees how COVID-19 is spread.
4. Have high-risk employees work from home if possible.
5. Tell employees to assume they and all of their coworkers and supervisors have COVID-19 and to take the precautions outlined in the first step.
6. Tell employees to avoid touching their faces.
7. Handwashing facilities must be readily available.
8. Have disposable cups at drinking stations.
9. Have hand sanitizer and spray disinfectant at bathrooms.
10. Certain jobs may require gloves. Disposable gloves should be removed by turning them inside out.  Reusable gloves require disinfection following use.
11. Tell employees to keep their distance from co-workers even during lunch and other breaks.
12. Tell employees to practice preventative measure while in public.
13. Employees need to wash hands at the start and end of their work days.
14. Wash produce prior to consumption.
15. Revise standard operating procedures (SOPs) to account for reducing spread of COVID-19.
16. Identify workers that have fallen ill to COVID-19 and subsequently recovered. These employees can be used at locations and for jobs where avoiding close contact with others is most difficult.
17. When a vaccine becomes available take measures to ensure that all are vaccinated.

Everyone needs to know that most COVID-19 cases are similar in severity to the common cold.  The disease is severe enough, though, that many will die if we aren’t all careful.  Be careful.