The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration says it will do more inspections in response to outbreaks of COVID-19 in construction and manufacturing. It says it wants to make sure businesses are following COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
According to data from the state health department, there are over 90 active investigations into outbreaks related to construction and manufacturing, as opposed to over 50 related to bars and restaurants. Of the 90, 28 were new investigations that began recently.
Robert Gordon is the director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. He says part of this could be related to the difficulty in investigating different outbreaks.
"It is much easier to trace cases to places where people live, like institutional settings, or work, or go to school, where they have core identification with those places. With restaurants and bars, we are talking about places where a person might spend an hour, and it is much harder to draw those connections," says Gordon.
MIOSHA staff plan to conduct random enforcement inspections at construction sites and manufacturing establishments. The goal is to make sure that businesses are complying with COVID-19 health and safety protocols. These include daily health screenings, face coverings, and physical distancing regulations.
Michigan COVID-19 Workplace Safety Director Sarah Egan said in a statement, "We must remain vigilant to guarantee that Michigan’s businesses can stay open, workers can keep working, and we can continue to see economic recovery.”
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