On July 13, Evans allowed health officials to inspect the farms. Other farms asked health officials to attribute outbreaks to other units of their company. Farmworker advocacy groups say county health officials were slow to grasp the spread of infection and fatalities in farmworker populations, in part because hospital officials and medical examiners did not consistently collect data by occupation or race. The state later partnered with county agriculture commissioners to distribute millions of surgical masks and other PPE to agricultural workers. By July 29, there were 85 confirmed cases linked to the outbreak at Alco Harvesting in Santa Maria, according to the county health department.

Source: Washington Post September 24, 2020 23:03 UTC