New COVID-19 Video in Spanish (English subtitles): Show your employees!

Farms with Spanish-speaking employees need to share this awesome new COVID-19 video with your employees. Find it here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/W-BIhll_kkw. The video has clear and easy to understand directions for stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Click the "CC" icon at the bottom of the YouTube video to turn on the English text.

It was produced by:

• Libby Eiholzer of Cornell Cooperative Extension
• Lisa Ford of Cayuga Marketing
• Anna Meyerhoff, of NY Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health (NYCAMH)

Pair this resource with the written documents we produced earlier this week. A new resource to help Spanish- and English-speaking farm employees access credible, multi-lingual information about COVID-19 that they can use right away. The document appears in English and Spanish and the content is the same, we will keep both documents up to date during the present COVID-19 crisis.

• COVID-19 Reliable Resources for Farmworkers - Spanish
• COVID-19 Reliable Resources for Farmworkers - English

Farms care about keeping employees, communities, and consumers safe! Keep up the good work and we'll get through this together!

--------

New CDC Guidance for Workers Exposed to COVID-19; Recorded Webinar for Produce Farms: Dairy Podcast

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new interim guidance for essential workers (including agricultural workers) who may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Link to the detailed guidance here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/critical-workers/implementing-safety-practices.html. Critical Infrastructure workers who have had an exposure but remain asymptomatic should adhere to the following practices prior to and during their work shift:

• Pre-Screen: Employers should measure the employee's temperature and assess symptoms prior to them starting work. Ideally, temperature checks should happen before the individual enters the facility.
• Regular Monitoring: As long as the employee doesn't have a temperature or symptoms, they should self-monitor under the supervision of their employer's occupational health program.
• Wear a Mask: The employee should wear a face mask at all times while in the workplace for 14 days after last exposure. Employers can issue facemasks or can approve employees' supplied cloth face coverings in the event of shortages.
• Social Distance: The employee should maintain 6 feet and practice social distancing as work duties permit in the workplace.
• Disinfect and Clean work spaces: Clean and disinfect all areas such as offices, bathrooms, common areas, shared electronic equipment routinely.

Thanks to Dr. Rob Lynch from PRO-DAIRY for identifying this resource.

Steps that produce farm managers and individuals working with fruit and vegetable farms should consider to protect their workforce, their business, and their markets

Other resources:

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and Your Produce Farm webinar recording - Recorded April 3, 2020

Link to COVID-19 and Your Produce Farm pdf of webinar presentation the PDF file contains active links that users can click to access the resources online.

Richard Stup, PhD, Cornell Agricultural Workforce Development, Elizabeth Bihn, PhD, Director of Produce Safety Alliance at Cornell, and Anu Rangarajan, PhD, Director of the Cornell Small Farms Program

Topics include: why prevention of the coronavirus/COVID-19 is important, steps that employers should take to protect employees, how to manage cleaning and disinfection in the workplace and employee housing, state and federal sick leave and workforce reduction policies, and disaster contingency planning to manage and prevent the spread of COVID-19 on-farm. 

DAIRYVOICE PODCAST with Joel Hastings: Dr. Richard Stup of Cornell University discusses dairy farmers managing coronavirus