New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy announced a halt for all non-essential construction, on Wednesday, April 8th. All non-essential construction sites will shut down by Friday, April 10th. As Governor Murphy stated on Wednesday, all non-essential construction sites will be closed indefinitely. Alongside these measures, New Jersey is promoting social distancing on job sites, including essential businesses such as supermarkets. As death cases by COVID-19 are going through a surge, any business that doesn’t practice social distancing “to its fullest” as Governor Murphy stated, should be shut down.
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New Jersey Following New York on Closing Non-Essential Construction Projects
Around two weeks into the decision that the Governor of New York brought on closing construction sites, New Jersey declared the same prevention measures. In the fight against the COVID-19 pandemics, social distancing and wearing protective equipment such as masks and gloves is not only necessary but also mandatory on job sites. After the prevention orders hit Seattle and New York, construction firms in New Jersey will also have to shut down their operations. The measure comes as a way to prevent the number of death cases to go through a further rise. The state by far reported over 47,000 cases of patients carrying COVID-19 infection. In the meantime, the number of death cases hit over 1,500 people with the latest information. Despite the indefinite halt imposed on non-essential construction, some construction firms will be allowed to continue with operations.
New Jersey: Essential Construction Projects Will Move Forward
The halt doesn’t apply to essential construction operations. Essential construction includes work on hospitals and public buildings, building shelters for the homeless, working on affordable housing, transportation, utilities, and schools. Moreover, housing projects that demand fewer workers on the site will also be able to move forward with operations. Other construction projects, described as non-essential, will need to wait for the crisis to be over or close to being resolved.
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