Ford government considers vaccinating migrant farmworkers upon arrival to Canada

The government of Ontario is considering prioritizing temporary migrant farmworkers for the coronavirus vaccine, hoping to have them vaccinated upon arrival in the country, Our Windsor reports.

Ontario associate medical officer of health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said that the province is "working with the federal government on this, hopefully they will be OK to do it." She further noted that "if they don't do it, we will probably do it because it's important."

Yaffe said that the workers would ideally be vaccinated "when they come in, optimally at the airport."

The province has experienced a number of outbreaks of coronavirus on farms since the beginning of the pandemic, with the government believing it may be necessary to vaccinate them first to protect agricultural production.

Over 1,780 farmworkers across Ontario have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

Roughly 20,000 migrant workers are employed on Ontario farms on an annual basis.

The news comes shortly after Niagara region also considered prioritizing migrant workers for vaccines, arguing on similar grounds that preventing coronavirus outbreaks on farms is necessary to protect the agricultural industry.

As of right now, farmworkers in Ontario are expected to begin receiving vaccinations next month as part of the province's second phase of the vaccine rollout.