Baseline COVID-19 tests due for some farms and ag processors

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Baseline COVID-19 tests due for some farms and ag processors

Some farms and ag processing plants need to conduct baseline COVID-19 testing this week after efforts to appeal an emergency order were denied.

Michigan Farm Bureau estimates 75,000 Latino farmworkers had to be tested by Monday after a federal judge ruled late Friday to uphold an emergency order after plaintiffs made several attempts to appeal or restrain it in time to meet requirements.  

Rob Anderson tells Brownfield many farms started testing in recent weeks or have applied to test with the state.  As for the suit which they supported,   “It’s my understanding that the plaintiffs in the case are going to appeal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals,” he says.

The emergency order, issued August 3rd by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, requires all migrant housing camps, all ag employers with more than 20 employees on-site at a time of migrant, H-2A, and seasonal ag workers as well as operators of greenhouses, and meat, poultry, and egg processing plants to conduct COVID-19 tests.

Failure to meet testing requirements will result in monetary fines.

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