ESSEX COUNTY — Erie Shore Healthcare and Essex-Windsor EMS have started an outreach program to help migrant workers during the pandemic.
The nurses from the hospital along with paramedics are checking in on migrant workers in bunk houses and in greenhouses to check for COVID-19 and especially those who are isolated after testing positive.
There is also a nurse interpreter to communicate with the workers about what is happening.
It follows the death of a migrant worker in his 30s from Mexico who was working at a local farm and died of COVID-19.
"Any of the migrant workers who are suspected or confirmed COVID cases who are isolating or in self-quarantine, once we do the assessment, we determine if they require a higher level of care or an assessment in our emergency room," says Erie Shores Healthcare Chief Nursing Executive Kristin Kennedy.
Of the workers who have been checked, six of them have been taken to the hospital according to Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj.
"And unfortunately, we have a 25-year-old at our hospital who is very sick," he says. "Any congregate setting, be it any setting where there is a large amount of individuals in a smaller setting, COVID will whip through there once it starts."
As of Wednesday, the health care teams checked 100 workers in 72 hours.