Heightened COVID-19 Risks to Temporary Foreign (Migrant) Agricultural Workers (TFAWs) and Recommended Actions in the 2020 Agricultural Season Occupational Medicine

In stages, the paper aims to describe potentially greater risks of exposure to SARS-CoV2 (the virus) and infection with COVID-19 (the illness) among TFAW, greater challenges in care support to TFAW, and a set of recommendations. The nature of the comparison varies in each sub-section e.g. difficulties in physical distancing on agricultural equipment versus workers in other industries such as construction, or congregate housing and group transportation for TFAW versus locally living agricultural workers. General recommendations, some of which cover more than one stage, endeavour to recognize the variation in farm operations and their organizational and financial capacities and the continuing uncertainties associated with the evidence available at the time of writing (June 2020). At the same time it conveys some urgency given the greater risks and multiple outbreaks occurring.