By Daisy Zavala Magaña

While Eduardo Muñoz Lara was working in an apple orchard in Othello on an H-2A farmworker visa, his wife, Laura Sandoval, was more than 2,400 miles away in their hometown of Ciudad Victoria, Mexico.

Separated by that distance and wanting to see her husband’s face, Laura video chatted Eduardo early the afternoon of October 11, while he was in isolation due to COVID-19 protocols. He hadn’t taken a COVID test because he was asymptomatic and because, according to Laura, workers were told tests would cost them $200.

When Eduardo, 38, answered the call, Laura immediately realized something was wrong. Her husband was having a stroke.

With Eduardo alone in his room, Laura says she felt helpless. “I was on the other side of the phone, and there wasn’t much I could do except scream for somebody to help him.”

She says it took hours before anyone found Eduardo and called an ambulance.

Eduardo and Laura’s story is terrifying, but it’s hardly unique. COVID-19 cases in Washington’s agricultural communities have skyrocketed in recent months. Many essential workers are uniquely vulnerable to the virus: Hospitalization rates among Hispanic individuals in Washington with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases are almost six times higher than in white populations, and their death rate is 3.5 times higher, according to a Department of Health report.

In 2020, the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) inspected 422 agriculture businesses and found 517 violations. Of the total inspections, 261 were COVID-19 related, resulting in 68 safety violations.

L&I did not immediately provide data on how many individual businesses were fined and how many were fined multiple times, but an agency spokesperson confirmed that about 60 percent of all infractions involved “serious” COVID-19 violations. There have been no recorded complaints against Eduardo’s employer at the time, Washington Fruit and Produce Co.

As of February 11, there have been 152 reported COVID-19 outbreaks in Washington state agriculture settings, warehouses, and employer-provided housing, according to a DOH report.

The risk was evident from the very beginning.