Its just meant to be absurd, I notice a lot of Lemmings digging for a deeper meaning that isn't there. If that image+caption doesn't make you grin immediately Farside may just not be your thing.
Yes, it absolutely is digging. This comic was released way before COVID-19 was a thing. The most recent pandemic was probably Spanish Flu, which was before his time.
This is top-tier The Far Side content. Everybody seems to remember the stuff with animals acting like humans, but this is the sort of thing that I remember most fondly.