An Immokalee resident gets tested for the novel coronavirus last week. Photo Naples Daily News.
Finally – after more than a month of delay, nearly 40,000 signatures on a petition to Florida’s elected officials, multiple national news stories, and countless calls to Governor DeSantis – local health officials agreed to organize mass testing in Immokalee. Soon, the farmworker community would have the data it needs to more effectively plan and lead the fight to protect itself from this deadly virus.

Except “soon” is, apparently, a relative term when it comes to Immokalee and COVID-19. Today, more than a week since the mass testing began last Sunday, the very first results are just now starting to trickle in, while the vast majority of people still have not heard from the Department of Health (DOH) as to the results of their tests. Meanwhile, calls to the number provided by the DOH for inquiries, according to many who have tried to call since last Friday, go unanswered. 

The consequences of such a long delay in sharing testing results can be grave, and measured in suffering and lives lost. In the words of Dr. Seth Holmes, a professor of Medical Anthropology and Public Health at the University of California Berkeley who is in Immokalee working in collaboration with efforts to combat the virus here:
“It is imperative to give test results as quickly and efficiently as possible, ideally within two or three days for the test most commonly used. Every day delayed beyond that is another day of fear and uncertainty for each individual who was tested, another day of people who have COVID circulating in the general public with likely viral spread, another day the public health system cannot conduct contact tracing and other work necessary to control the pandemic. A delay of more than a week in giving results to hundreds of people who are tested thwarts critical public health efforts and likely leads to unnecessary exposures, infections and possibly even deaths.”  
And as Immokalee awaits the results of last week’s tests, the question of what comes next is top of mind: Will Florida step up to protect workers and their family members who test positive? Can test results be leveraged to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the farmworker community, even as workers begin to travel north into new states to follow the harvest? The online news hub, Food Tank, checked in with CIW’s Nely Rodriguez as the testing wrapped up about what comes next. Here’s some of the highlights from the excellent post-testing report:
At High Risk for COVID-19, Immokalee Farmworkers Demand Health Care Protections From the State of Florida

Considered essential workers during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, farm workers in Immokalee, Florida, are part of the backbone of the state’s agriculture industry. However, they do not receive adequate health protections from the state. The farm workers’ rights group, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), developed a list of demands to keep workers safe and is calling on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to immediately adopt them.

“Farm workers have been deemed essential, but our healthcare hasn’t,” Nely Rodriguez, a CIW organizer tells Food Tank. “We continue to harvest and provide food, but with very little protections.” …
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Coalition of Immokalee Workers | 110 S 2nd St, Immokalee, FL 34142
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