Ryan Nicol
Miami-Dade County is stopping construction inspections after the COVID-19 virus began spreading among officials who handle those permitting efforts.
As noted by the Miami Herald, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez issued an Emergency Order on Saturday suspending those reviews.
“All laws, statutes, codes and regulations relating to County employees performing building code functions are suspended,” the order reads.
“I further suspend all laws applicable to the County which are inconsistent with the provisions of this order, including, but not limited to, the requirements to receive and process manually executed plans and the qualifications of personnel to perform building code related services.”
The order also lays out the review process while the order is in effect. The process requires builders to hire engineers to carry out the reviews instead.
“Inspections may be performed by a State of Florida licensed and registered architect or engineer who has no financial interest in the construction,” the relevant portion reads.
Other inspections will be conducted, such as those pertaining to fire safety and environmental screening.
The county has allowed construction to continue, even as the county operates under a “safer-at-home” order.
Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he was issuing an executive order — modeled off Miami-Dade’s order — that would span Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
As of a Monday morning update, Miami-Dade County was responsible for 1,632 of the state’s 5,473 confirmed COVID-19 cases. That’s according to a tally maintained by the Department of Health.
The death rate in the U.S. has hovered slightly above 1%. But experts worry that if hospitals are overwhelmed with cases, that could inhibit doctors’ ability to treat patients and send that death rate even higher.
Without a full understanding of who has the virus — and without a vaccine or reliable way to treat symptoms — health officials have urged Americans to cut down on social interactions until the virus’s spread is under control.
