Construction is booming in America. One Texas city says it led to COVID-19 surge
In most states, construction projects have been allowed to continue into April and May, while others such as California reopened at a later date. On May 4, seven San Francisco Bay Area health officers reopened all construction under updated shelter-in-place orders, according to Engineering News-Record.
However, Texas is reporting a surge in COVID-19 cases among construction crews — something that the city of Austin had been warned about a month ago.
According to Austin’s Health Authority, officials have seen a surge in COVID-19 cases in construction crews who have been allowed to keep working since early April.
After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott allowed construction to continue in early April, Austin Mayor Steve Adler said that if “construction workers don’t follow social distancing practices and personal hygiene recommendations, thousands of additional patients could be hospitalized,” KVUE reported on April 7.
“If they don’t mitigate well, if workers are passing the virus between them, then the total hospitalizations in our city could be three times higher than it would be without construction activity,” the Austin Mayor said in a Facebook Live on April 7.
On Tuesday, Dr. Mark Escott, the EMS System Medical Director for the city of Austin, told city council members that the numbers spiking among construction workers was significant.
“We have seen a significant number of construction workers as well as family members of construction workers who are in that positive group right now,” Escott said as reported by the Austin American-Statesman. “It certainly seems to be at least one of the dominant industries.
“The people who are getting sick right now are generally people who are working right now. That risk is going to increase the more people who are working.”
When it was announced that construction would reopen on May 4 in the San Francisco Bay Area, ESR pointed out that some safety protocols required for construction projects to resume in other states are different from social distancing requirements, which leads to apprehension.
“We have serious concerns and oppositions related to aspects of the new order,” says Emily Cohen, executive vice president of the United Contractors, as reported by ESR. “We believe many of the new requirements are arbitrary, unworkable and a step backward for heavy civil engineering construction.”
Escott noted that health officials are coming up with target testing for construction sites and other potential hot zones, according to KVUE.
As of Wednesday, at least 34,272 Texans had tested positive for the coronavirus and 962 had died.
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 3:32 PM with the headline "Construction is booming in America. One Texas city says it led to COVID-19 surge."