New York's COVID-19 action plan could limit construction's essential status | Dump Trucks Charlotte NC
Columbus Ohio Dump Truck Company Brief:
- Much like during the early days of the pandemic, new COVID-19 guidance from New York State puts renewed focus on whether businesses, including construction, are essential.
Dump Trucks Columbus OH Insight:
The zones are designed to help control COVID-19 spread and protect hospital capacity in New York, which has seen rising caseloads since the fall. According to an online tracker, no areas are deemed Red Zones but there are several Orange and Yellow areas. The metrics used for each are:
- Red Zone: A Red Zone will be implemented when a region, after the cancellation of elective procedures and a 50% increase in hospital capacity, is 21 days away from reaching 90% hospital capacity on the current seven-day growth rate.
- Orange Zone: A geographic area will be eligible to an Orange Zone if it has a 4% positivity rate (seven-day average) over the last 10 days and it is located in a region that has reached 85% hospital capacity. Alternatively, an area may also become an Orange Zone if the New York State Department of Health determines the region’s rate of hospital admissions is unacceptably high and a zone designation is appropriate to control the rate of growth.
- Yellow Zone: A geographic area will be eligible to enter a Yellow Zone if it has a 3% positivity rate (seven-day average) over the past 10 days and is in the top 10% in the state for hospital admissions per capita over the past week and is experiencing week-over-week growth in daily admissions.
As national virus case counts spike, and daily death tolls reach their highest levels since the spring, columbus oh dump truck company around the country are worried about the potential for more stop-work orders to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19, similar to initial shutdowns that were put in place in the first weeks of the pandemic, prior to construction being deemed essential in most regions.
The AGC NYS last week led a statewide coalition of industry groups calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to continue to deem construction essential in all zones.
“As COVID-19 cases continue to spike throughout New York State and the nation, the construction industry has worked in a safe and essential manner,” read a letter signed by the leaders of 21 construction-focused groups and trade unions. “We strongly urge you to keep construction as an essential business so that we can keep this critical sector of the economy working.”
In a briefing last week, Cuomo provided data that showed construction as the source of exposure in only .66% of COVID-19 cases from September to November, according to contact tracing data.
AGC NYS CEO Mike Elmendorf noted, in the letter to members, that the situation is evolving and said that he anticipates the industry is re-entering a period of frequent changes to rules and guidance.
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