Worker Who Tested Positive For Covid-19 Followed N.S. Health Measures
HALIFAX — A temporary worker from Mexico has tested positive for Covid-19 in Nova Scotia.
The new case was recorded in the province’s Western zone, which encompasses the Annapolis Valley, whose farms bring in hundreds of temporary foreign workers each year.
According to Premier Stephen McNeil, the person who tested positive has been following all the necessary public health protocols since arriving in the province.
McNeil said the person began self-isolating as soon as they arrived in Nova Scotia. During that time, they developed Covid-19 symptoms, tested positive, and have remained in isolation.
“Because they were in quarantine, the person had very limited contact to others,” McNeil said.
“When a temporary foreign worker arrives in Nova Scotia there are very strict protocols. They are picked up at the airport, taken to the location where they begin their 14 days of quarantine, and they have minimal contact with others.”
For those 14 days, new arrivals can’t work or go into the community, nor can they leave quarantine until two weeks have passed and they don’t show any symptoms of Covid-19.
“In this case, the protocols worked because the individual never left their quarantine,” McNeil said.
According to Victor Oulton, the president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, about 1,500 temporary foreign workers come to work just on Nova Scotia farms each year.
Many have been returning to the same farm for years (some for more than a decades), and are a vital part of both farm operations and the communities they work and live in.
After weeks without any new Covid-19 cases, Nova Scotia has recorded three new ones in the last three days.
The two other cases are in the central zone and likely related to travel in the United States.
“It is a very good reminder to all of us that Covid is still in our province,” and that’s why it’s so important to keep following public health protocols, McNeil said.