COVID-19 Pandemic Response in a Migrant Farmworker Community: Excess Mortality, Testing Access and Contact Tracing in Immokalee, Florida

Neha Limaye; Brennan Ninesling; Frantzso Marcelin; Cody Nolan; Walter Sobba; Matthew Hing; Emily Ptaszek; Fernet Léandre; Daniel Palazuelos

doi:10.5334/aogh.3859

COVID-19 Pandemic Response in a Migrant Farmworker Community: Excess Mortality, Testing Access and Contact Tracing in Immokalee, Florida

Volume 88 (2022): Issue 1

By: Neha Limaye, Brennan Ninesling , Frantzso Marcelin, Cody Nolan , Walter Sobba , Matthew Hing , Emily Ptaszek, Fernet Léandre and Daniel Palazuelos

Open Access

|Sep 2022

Figures & Tables

Timeline of COVID-19 Related Services in Collier County, Florida, March 2020–May 2021.

Table 1

Results for total recorded deaths, predicted deaths, and estimated excess deaths in Collier County.

	MAY 2020					JUNE 2020				JULY 2020					AUGUST 2020		TOTAL
WEEK	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	TOTAL
Date	4/27–5/3	5/4–5/10	5/11–5/17	5/18–5/24	5/25–5/31	6/1–6/7	6/8–6/14	6/15–5/21	6/22–6/28	6/29–7/5	7/6–7/12	7/13–7/19	7/20–7/26	7/27–8/2	8/3–8/9	8/10–8/16
Total all-cause recorded deaths, no.	0	5	20	24	12	16	25	16	27	23	30	32	22	29	37	1	319
Predicted deaths, no.	0	2.4	9.6	4.5	13.5	15.3	13.0	14.5	14.2	11.2	8.1	12.1	11.0	13.5	10.7	0.4	154
Excess deaths, no.	0	2.6	10.4	19.5	0.0	0.7	12.0	1.5	12.8	11.8	21.9	19.9	11.0	15.5	26.3	0.6	167
Excess deaths,%	0	108	108	433	0	5	92	10	90	105	270	164	100	115	246	150	108

Flow Diagram of Participant Recruitment.

Table 2

Demographic characteristics of survey participants.

CHARACTERISTIC	PARTICIPANTS
CHARACTERISTIC	N*	%
Gender	N = 312
Female	165	52.9%
Male	147	47.1%
Age group (yrs)	N = 313
18–24	34	10.9%
25–34	76	24.3%
35–44	73	23.3%
45–64	96	30.7%
65–80	29	9.3%
81+	5	1.6%
Race/Ethnicity	N = 316
White	10	3.2%
Black	76	24.1%
Latino/a	213	67.4%
Indigenous	1	0.3%
Bi- or Multi-racial	11	3.5%
Prefer not to answer	2	0.6%
Other	3	0.9%
Preferred language	N = 313
English	118	37.7%
Spanish	133	42.5%
Haitian Creole	59	18.8%
Mam	3	1.0%
Educational attainment	N = 314
No formal schooling	26	8.30%
Kindergarten-5th grade	42	13.40%
6–8th grade	44	14.00%
9–12th grade	161	51.30%
Beyond high school	41	13.10%
Housing situation	N = 317
No housing	2	0.60%
Housed but housing insecure	83	26.20%
Housed	230	72.60%
Other	2	0.60%
Housing characteristics (mean)
Household members	3.95
Bathrooms	1.52
Bathrooms per person	0.48
Bedrooms	2.79
Bedrooms per person	0.86
Food insecurity during last month	N = 318
Yes	61	19.20%
Primary occupation	N = 318
Farmworker	64	20.10%
Other	64	20.10%
Construction	25	7.90%
Landscaping	18	5.70%
Packinghouse worker	16	5.00%
Healthcare worker	13	4.10%
Food service	13	4.10%
Maintenance or custodian	9	2.80%
Driver	8	2.50%
Painter	7	2.20%
Education	7	2.20%
Agricultural supervisor	4	1.30%
Casino Employee	3	0.90%
Unemployed	53	16.70%
Retired	14	4.40%

[i] * N ranges between 312–318 based on lack of response to certain questions.

Table 3

Self-reported workplace policies of participants and essential worker status, stratified by primary language spoken.

	ANSWER	PRIMARY LANGUAGE SPOKEN						COMPARISON
		ENGLISH		SPANISH		HAITIAN CREOLE		ENGLISH/SPANISH (p)	ENGLISH/CREOLE (p)
		%	NO.	%	NO.	%	NO.	ENGLISH/SPANISH (p)	ENGLISH/CREOLE (p)
Essential Worker	Yes	68.60%	81	76.70%	102	66.10%	39
	No	31.40%	37	23.30%	31	33.90%	20	0.1522	0.7329
Option to work from home?	No	74.40%	67	97.00%	96	97.10%	34
Option to work from home?	Yes	25.60%	23	3.00%	3	2.90%	1	<0.0000	0.0023
PPE at work?	No	15.90%	14	26.50%	26	19.40%	7
PPE at work?	Yes	84.10%	74	73.50%	72	80.60%	29	0.0784	0.6388

[i] Note: Boldface indicates statistical significance (p < 0.05).

Table 4

Participant experiences with COVID-19 testing, stratified by primary language spoken.

SURVEY QUESTION	ANSWER	PRIMARY LANGUAGE SPOKEN						COMPARISON
		ENGLISH		SPANISH		HAITIAN CREOLE		ENGLISH/SPANISH (p)	ENGLISH/CREOLE (p)
		%	NO.	%	NO.	%	NO.	ENGLISH/SPANISH (p)	ENGLISH/CREOLE (p)
Have you been tested for COVID-19?	Yes	61.90%	73	51.90%	69	42.40%	25
Have you been tested for COVID-19?	No	38.10%	45	48.10%	64	57.60%	34	0.1112	0.0139^a
Where were you tested?	DOH	23.90%	21	25.70%	19	7.10%	2
	Immokalee Clinic	18.20%	16	36.50%	27	60.70%	17
	Naples	20.50%	18	16.20%	12	14.30%	4
	Fort Myers	22.70%	20	10.80%	8	0.00%	0
	Other	14.80%	13	10.80%	8	17.90%	5	0.0547	<0.0000^b
How long for results?	<24 hours	31.50%	23	22.10%	15	56.00%	14
	2–3 days	26.00%	19	25.00%	17	16.00%	4
	4–6 days	11.00%	8	10.30%	7	12.00%	3
	1 week+	31.50%	23	42.60%	29	16.00%	4	0.4967	0.1617^b
What was the result?	Positive	27.40%	20	26.10%	18	0.00%	0
What was the result?	Negative	71.20%	52	73.90%	51	96.00%	24	0.8514	0.0026^b
If you or another person in your household was showing symptoms such as fever, cough, fatigue, would you get tested for COVID-19?	Yes	87.30%	103	89.50%	119	91.40%	53
	No	11.90%	14	3.00%	4	6.90%	4
	Not sure	0.80%	1	7.50%	10	1.70%	1	0.0132	0.4292^b
If you were to be unable to isolate in your current housing for COVID-19, would you be open to temporarily going to a supportive isolation shelter?	Yes	53.40%	63	65.40%	87	66.70%	38
	No	38.10%	45	29.30%	39	24.60%	14
	Not sure	8.50%	10	5.30%	7	8.80%	5	0.0885	0.0702^a

[i] Note: Boldface indicates statistical significance (p < 0.05).

^a Chi square.

^b Fisher’s exact.

Table 5

Contact tracing experiences of participants, stratified by primary language spoken.

SURVEY QUESTION	ANSWER	PRIMARY LANGUAGE SPOKEN				COMPARISON
		ENGLISH		SPANISH		ENGLISH/SPANISH (P)
		%	NO.	%	NO.	ENGLISH/SPANISH (P)
Participants who tested positive			20			18
Contact tracing occurred^a	Yes	35.00%	7	33.30%	6	1
Contact tracing occurred^a	No	60.00%	12	66.70%	12	1
Quarantine guidance given^b	Yes	70.00%	14	38.90%	7	0.0409
	No	20.00%	4	61.10%	11	0.0409
Connected to resources^c	Yes	45.00%	9	27.80%	5	0.3133
	No	50.00%	10	72.20%	13	0.3133
Asked language preference	Yes	26.30%	5	81.80%	9	0.0183
	No	57.90%	11	18.20%	2	0.0183
Language of phone call	English	94.70%	18	9.10%	1	<0.0000
	Spanish	5.30%	1	90.90%	10	<0.0000
Participants with positive close contact			42		24
Informed of positive contact	Yes	33.30%	14	41.70%	10	0.6005
Informed of positive contact	No	64.30%	27	58.30%	14	0.6005

[i] ^a Did they ask for assistance in identifying the names and phone numbers of individuals you were in contact with?

^b Did they ask about your ability to safely isolate and quarantine in your current housing situation?

^c Did they provide information on any resources that exist to help assist with isolation or quarantine?

Note: Boldface indicates statistical significance (p < 0.05).

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3859 | Journal eISSN: 2214-9996

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Language: English

Submitted on: May 26, 2022

Accepted on: Aug 2, 2022

Published on: Sep 7, 2022

Published by: Ubiquity Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

Keywords:

migrant health,

migrant seasonal farmworkers,

pandemic response,

community health,

language inequities

© 2022 Neha Limaye, Brennan Ninesling, Frantzso Marcelin, Cody Nolan, Walter Sobba, Matthew Hing, Emily Ptaszek, Fernet Léandre, Daniel Palazuelos, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 88 (2022): Issue 1

COVID-19 Pandemic Response in a Migrant Farmworker Community: Excess Mortality, Testing Access and Contact Tracing in Immokalee, Florida

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Table 1

Figure 2

Table 2

Table 3

Table 4

Table 5

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