With the widespread cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, some farm employers have had difficulty staffing regular operations due to employees in quarantine. In many cases, the employees are asymptomatic and would like to be back at work. New York Department of Health recently released: “Advisory on Shortening Isolation Period for Certain Fully Vaccinated Healthcare Workers and Other Critical Workforce.” Farm employees and other agricultural workers are included in the “critical workforce,” this means that fully vaccinated and asymptomatic individuals can return to work after 5 days of quarantine rather than the 10 that was formerly required. Read the NYSDOH Advisory for full details.
