The UK's construction industry has been offered a small amount of hope this week with the publication of a pandemic recovery document outlining ways in which buildings and businesses can be made “Covid-19 secure”.
Construction
The document, titled "Our Plan To Rebuild", notes the importance of proper ventilation and the ability to adhere to proper social distancing are paramount in ensuring the public can get back to work as soon as possible.
The 50-page document was released earlier this week by the government and outlines some of the short and medium-term actions to dealing with the pandemic. They hope this will allow the country to slowly lift the lockdown restrictions and get everything back to normal as soon as possible.
The document also lists many of the ways different businesses are innovating, including switching to an online model, increasing home working with added benefits including reducing the country’s carbon footprint.
The government strategy specifies that all indoor office spaces must be properly ventilated while also limiting the number of people that workers regularly come into contact with.
The document urges people to “[in good weather] leave windows and doors open in places where people from different households come into contact – or more activity outdoors if you can.
“Use external extractor fans to keep spaces well-ventilated and make sure that ventilation systems are set to maximise the fresh air-flow rate. Healing and cooling systems can be used at their normal temperatures.”
The government argues that any effective strategy to limit the spread of the virus in the country will require widespread testing, tracing and monitoring of Covid-19. This will need to be backed with additional shielding of the most vulnerable, to ensure they are not infected by the disease, particularly in care homes and those on the frontlines of disease prevention, and via the workplace redesign protocol listed in the ‘Covid-19’ secure guide.
Good hygiene should be in place to minimise transmissions and the practice of regular handwashing shall remain in place, while also being required to maintain a social distancing of at least two meters alongside regular disinfecting of surfaces.
Enclosed spaces where social distancing is not possible facilitate the use of protective face covering. The strategy stipulates that covering does not protect individuals from infection, but will contamination risks in carriers of the virus.
Furthermore, face coverings are classed differently to PPE such as facemasks that may be required in the HVAC sector, as well as being mandatory for frontline workers such as healthcare workers directly dealing with Covid patients.
Additionally, the construction industry has been urged to not compete with the NHS for the finite supply of PPE available to the public sector, particularly with fears of a shortage in the industry.
Many industry bodies are awaiting information and clarity from the government about how best to return to work, the treatment still urges the public to limit social contact as much as possible, particularly outside of a workplace environment.
The government strategy paper notes: “In the near term, the degree of social contact within the population continues to serve as a proxy for the transmission of the virus; the fewer contacts, the lower the risk.”
The strategy notes its key aim is to prepare the country for a world where coronavirus remains a constant risk. The government notes that there will not be a “quick return to normality” like some people have hoped.
It says: “As soon as practicable, workplaces should follow the new ‘COVID-19 Secure’ guidelines, as set out in the previous chapter, which will be published this week. These will ensure the risk of infection is as low as possible while allowing as many people as possible to resume their livelihoods.”
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