According to the Miami Herald, Sergio Pino, president of Century Homebuilders (not affiliated with Century Communities, Inc.) believes it's time to shut down construction sites. “The only way to stop the spread of this virus is by cutting its roots,” said Pino. Construction workers “continue to be exposed and have already been infected. This will result in a chain reaction across the board in all jobsites as long as they remain open.” Pino is considering a unilateral 10-day shutdown of his own sites but wants everyone to join him as the lack of an industry-wide closure “will defeat the purpose and this virus will continue to multiply from jobsite to jobsite and into our homes.”
On March 26th, Pino became the first developer in Miami-Dade to cease work at one of his sites, the $100 million mixed-use project 850 LeJeune Road, after two of his workers tested positive for coronavirus. The site is being disinfected and the company asked all its subcontractors and employees who had been at the location over the last 14 days to get tested and consider self-isolating.
After Pino learned that two of the subcontractors, an electrician and a shell contractor, had instead gotten jobs at other sites and were potentially infecting other workers, he decided closure is the only step for the industry to take.
“Everybody is doing their part and we should do ours,” Pino told the Herald. “Our industry is not going to suffer from shutting down for 10 days. I don’t think we are an essential business. We’re not gas stations or pharmacies or supermarkets.”
Construction sites have been spared by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who has declared much of the county’s economy non-essential in issuing emergency orders closing offices, restaurants, entertainment venues, salons, marinas and any business that doesn’t fall into what his decrees declare essential.
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