Jun 23, 2020

State guidance for protecting ag workers finalized in Colorado

In an effort to protect Colorado’s essential workers within the agriculture industry and to minimize the potential spread of COVID-19, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has finalized state guidance for the agriculture industry.

With input and advice from the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Department of Labor and Employment, and in alignment with the CDC’s agricultural worker guidance, the new guidance addresses the use of personal protective equipment, hygiene, equipment cleaning, sick leave benefits, case reporting, and more.

“These new expert recommendations provide important direction to our state’s critically important agriculture industry and to those absolutely essential workers along every stop of the food supply chain,” said Kate Greenberg, Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture. 

The guidance contains recommendations for posting the information at the workplace in a way that is easily understood by the workforce. The guidance is currently available in English and Spanish, and will also be available in Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Somali, Arabic, and Nepali. 

The local public health agency in each Colorado county is available to respond to questions and concerns, and to support the local community in COVID-related issues. Contact information for each county’s local public health agency can be found here.

The guidance is available here.  Guidance en español is available here.