#Nearly 100 residents of California farmworker dorm contract coronavirus

Enlarge Image

Workers tend to a field of flowers in Oxnard, Calif.
AP/Mark J. Terrill

At least 95 residents of a California farmworker housing facility have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a new report.

The farmworkers, employed at the Villa Las Brisas complex in Oxnard, are in their 20s and 30s and have minor symptoms, the Ventura County Star reported, citing county health department officials.

The residents are staying at the facility under quarantine.

Test results are pending for another 100 people.

“Our team responded immediately once we learned of this outbreak,” county public health director Rigoberto Vargas said in a statement obtained by the outlet. “We will continue to assist those who have tested positive and those who have been exposed.”

The dorm-style facility was developed by Reiter Affiliated Cos. — the largest fresh berry producer in the world — to house temporary migrant farmworkers in the H-2A visa program, according to the report.

The residents living there are employed by third-party farm labor contractors, not directly by Reiter, Vargas told the outlet.

The first two cases were detected on June 17, and officials moved to test all guest workers and employees living there by June 25, housing program manager Alejandro Castilla said in a statement obtained by the outlet.

Castilla also said the facility “proactively reduced our total capacity to 46%, housing 205 guest workers out of a potential 441, helping to increase social distancing.”

A total of 2,740 coronavirus cases and 45 deaths have been reported in Ventura County, according to the latest statistics, updated Monday.

California overall has reported 216,550 cases and 5,936 deaths.