With 23 COVID-19 cases, Augusta construction site adds further safety measures

Photo / Maureen Milliken Further measures have been taken to ensure worker safety at the construction site of the Maine Veterans' Home in Augusta, though Maine CDC has not yet determined if the exposure to COVID-19 that's resulted in positve cases of workers at the site happened onsite.

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By Maureen Milliken

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention continues to investigate a COVID-19 outbreak tied to an Augusta construction site managed by Cianbro Corp. and VJS Construction Services, as the companies say they've taken measures to ensure the safety of employees at the site.

As of Wednesday, there were 23 positive cases among workers affiliated with the Maine Veterans' Home construction site on Old Belgrade Road in Augusta, according to Nirav Shah, director of Maine CDC.

Shah said Wednesday that it's important to note that those infected may not have gotten the virus at the site, but from congregating together elsewhere. "Although the construction site has been identified, we don't even know that the construction site was definitely the area transmission occurred," he said at his daily briefing.

In a statement on its website, Cianbro said that the first case was reported May 1. The company, which is based in Pittsfield, along with another contractor on the project, Pewaukee, Wisc.-based VJS, have been following CDC guidelines for worker safety at the site.

After the positive test, "We took additional measures, including engaging the Maine CDC, contact tracing and quarantining of those individuals that came into close contact with the worker, as well as increased sanitization around the project site," the statement said.

As more positive tests emerged, the company voluntarily began testing workers who were on the site from April 27 to May 10. Anyone entering the site now has to have tested negative.

Those measures have been taken while "it is important to note we do not know the source of the exposure," the statement said.

Work has shifted to paving, since the paving contractor's workers haven't been exposed to the site. Interior areas, where there may have been exposure, "have been, and will continue to be, disinfected."

"The feedback from the CDC states that they have no further recommendations and that the project is doing a good job minimizing the risk of further spread," Cianbro said.

'A challenging question'

Shah said Wednesday health researchers are still interviewing contractors, subcontractors and others who work on the site, where Cianbro and VJS are building a 179,000-square-foot Maine Veterans Home.

"The bulk of the individuals who are at that site were from the Northeast," Shah said. "We have not yet detected whether the individuals who were affected brought COVID-19 to Maine or acquired it while they were in Maine. It's a very challenging question to answer because it requires us to line up, in a single row, the dates each and every person started experiencing symptoms, and try to look at where their exposures were."

Elsewhere, Shah said there are also now 15 positive cases related to a Portland site of Bristol Seafood, which is also still being investigated.

The outbreaks at the Augusta construction site and seafood plant are the second and third at businesses in the state that aren't congregant care facilities — a place such as a nursing home, where people live together in close quarters. There were 55 cases at Tyson Foods in Portland.

Cianbro and VJS continue to operate under safety precautions suggested by the Maine CDC, including daily medical surveys, temperature checks, required personal and environmental hygiene practices and proper PPE components, the Cianbro statement said.

"Deemed an essential industry by the government, construction, and respective projects around the state, continue to be built during this pandemic," it said. "The Maine Veterans’ Homes campus project is no exception. The health and well-being of our employees and trade partners is our highest priority. The project continues to operate with precautions in place."