How California’s Salinas Valley went from covid hot spot to a model for vaccination and safety

Last summer, coronavirus raged among Salinas Valley farmworkers, who were three times more likely to be infected by the coronavirus than other workers last summer, according to the Monterey County dashboard tracker.

Deemed essential, farmworkers planted, harvested and packed produce right beside co-workers, often relying on employers for crowded transportation and accommodation in camp-style housing. In many cases, protective gear, including masks, were in short supply. Testing didn’t begin until many migratory workers had moved on to harvests elsewhere.

A year later, much has changed.

D’Arrigo California, a longtime Salinas Valley company that grows 35,000 acres of mostly vegetables, was approved as the first site for mass vaccination for farmworkers in Monterey County this spring. D’Arrigo partnered with the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California and Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, a community-based health-care provider, and received a supply of Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines directly from the federal government.

Three hundred workers were vaccinated at the first drive-through clinic; the next Saturday that number was 3,000, according to Christopher Valadez, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California. As the number of people seeking vaccination grew each weekend, the clinic moved first to the Salinas Sports Complex that houses the California Rodeo Salinas, and then to the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds in King City.

Valadez says his group, having just completed its 13th clinic, has vaccinated 30,000 farmworkers; other clinics at pharmacies and hospitals have vaccinated 15,000 more. He said more than two-thirds of farmworkers in Monterey County have been vaccinated and others have herd immunity from having contracted the virus during last summer’s harvest. By comparison, according to CDC data, 54 percent of people over 18 in Monterey County overall are fully vaccinated.

As infection numbers spiked last summer, the Grower-Shipper Association established a quarantine housing program with 60 private beds available each month. This year, Valadez says, the capacity of the program has expanded but they are averaging just five workers per month, an indication that vaccinations, PPE and other protocols have led to plummeting infection rates. ...

ALSO SEE:

[Five days, 100 vaccine doses and a wildfire of conspiracy theories: One woman tests the power of presence in a California farmworker community where distrust is fuel for disinformation]