Brewster, Wash.-based Gebbers Farms says state COVID-19 testing at the apple, cherry and pear-growing operation indicates the firm’s preventive measures have been effective at protecting workers.
Washington State Department of Health officials reported during a routine COVID-19 press update in early September that of the more than 3,000 workers tested to-date at Gebbers Farms, 99.3% were negative for the virus, according to a news release.
Gebbers Farms employs around 4,500 people at peak season in July, including 2,500 H-2A guest workers, the company reported.
On Aug. 19, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee issued a proclamation requiring agricultural employers to test their workforce broadly when health officials identify an outbreak that passes certain thresholds. In addition to the proclamation, Washington Secretary of Health John Wiesman ordered testing of Gebbers employees, following a significant outbreak and the subsequent deaths of three farmworkers, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
With a positive rate of less than 1%, all of whom were asymptomatic, the farm’s test results are better than Okanogan County’s positive rate of 2.4%, Washington state’s rate of 3.2% and national rate of 5.5%, according to Gebbers Farms.
“We have worked diligently for months now to protect our workers, and we are grateful to learn that the state’s test results show that what we have been doing has helped,” Cass Gebbers, CEO of Gebbers Farms, said in the release. “Are we perfect? Of course not, but we are firmly committed to continual improvement. For perfection, we will all have to wait for a vaccine.”
The family-owned company said it continues to mourn the deaths of the farmworkers.
In February, the farm began taking steps to protect its workers, according to the release, including early efforts giving providing bilingual educational materials and personal protective equipment to all workers, and following public health guidelines as they evolved. When the pandemic spread, the release said the company consulted an infectious disease specialist to develop protocols to limit workers’ virus exposure and transmission.
