Combined Infection Control Interventions Protect the Essential Workforce from Occupationally-Acquired SARS-CoV-2 during Produce Production, Harvesting and Processing Activities

Essential food workers experience an elevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection due to prolonged occupational exposures (e.g., frequent close contact, enclosed spaces) in food production and processing areas, shared transportation (car or bus), and employer-provided shared housing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of combined food industry interventions and vaccination on reducing the daily cumulative risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for produce workers. Six linked quantitative microbial risk assessment models were developed in R to simulate daily scenarios experienced by a worker. Standard industry interventions (2 m physical distancing, handwashing, surface disinfection, universal masking, increased ventilation) and two-dose mRNA vaccinations (86–99% efficacy) were modeled individually and jointly to assess risk reductions. The infection risk for an indoor (0.802, 95% Uncertainty Interval [UI]: 0.472–0.984) and outdoor (0.483, 95% UI: 0.255–0.821) worker was reduced to 0.018 (93% reduction) and 0.060 (87.5% reduction) after implementation of combined industry interventions. Upon integration of these interventions with vaccination, the infection risk for indoor (0.001, 95% UI: 0.0001–0.005) and outdoor (0.004, 95% UI: 0.001–0.016) workers was reduced by ≥99.1%. Food workers face considerable risk of occupationally-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infection without interventions; however, consistent implementation of key infection control measures paired with vaccination effectively mitigates these risks.