Lendlease says trade contractor has tested positive for virus
Lendlease has confirmed its scheme to build Google鈥檚 new 拢1bn headquarters in London鈥檚 King鈥檚 Cross was closed today after being hit by the coronavirus outbreak.
The site, which employs more than 200 people, will be also be closed tomorrow while it is checked over by the health authorities.
In a statement, a Lendlease spokesperson said: 鈥淎 trade contractor who had access to the site office has tested positive for COVID-19 [coronavirus] and is in self-isolation. We are in contact with the health authorities and, as a precautionary measure, the site has been closed for two days to allow a deep-clean of the facilities to take place.鈥�
It is the first major site to be hit by the virus which has now been branded a pandemic by the World Health Organisation 鈥� meaning the disease is spreading in multiple countries around the world at the same time.
Other major sites in London have been forced to introduce emergency measures to try and stop their jobs being hit by a shutdown.
One source on a job with more than 500 workers on it said: 鈥淪hift work is to be implemented to keep the numbers down. Meetings have been cancelled. We鈥檙e using calls and Skype instead.鈥�
And one major contractor said jobs with more than 500 people will have to be scaled back to keep them going amid increasing worries that gatherings of more than that number will be banned soon.
He added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a way of maintaining some degree of programme progress 鈥� but we鈥檙e starting to see shortages of cladding panels, glass, Italian stone and so on.鈥�
Most London tower schemes have more than 500 workers on them, while other jobs with big numbers of site staff include the Crossrail project at Bond Street and the Battersea Power Station redevelopment.
The news comes after the industry was told to brace itself for major disruption in the coming weeks and months after prime minister Boris Johnson announced sweeping measures to tackle the outbreak this evening.
People with a fever or cough have been told to self-isolate for seven days and Johnson said: 鈥淭here is no escaping the reality that these measures will cause severe disruption across our country for many months.鈥�
The country鈥檚 chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said as many as 10,000 people in the UK may already have coronavirus, adding the UK was about four weeks behind Italy in terms of the scale of the outbreak where nearly all shops have been closed and all-but-essential travel banned.
Today, Italy said that more 15,000 people had been infected with the number of deaths topping 1,000.
Earlier today, the UK said the number of coronavirus cases had gone up from 460 to 590 with the number of deaths now at 10.
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