A man gets out of his car, puts on his hard hat and walks on an apartment building construction site in Halifax Regional Municipality. 

It’s 7 a.m. on Tuesday, and while the drive to work for the construction worker was quiet, his mind was not.

“The constant influx of people at the site makes you paranoid,” he said, speaking to The Chronicle Herald on the condition of anonymity. 

“You’re happy you’re still able to make money, but you’re worried about your health and safety and the possibility of bringing something home to your own family.” 

Nova Scotia has deemed construction an essential service amid the coronavirus pandemic. Healthy workers in trades are allowed to travel across the provincial border and are not required to self-isolate for 14 days. 

Despite construction sites adjusting protocols to adhere to social distancing measures, the worker said some crew members have stopped coming out of fear for their own personal health.

“You can’t always be social distancing when you’re doing certain tasks. It’s not possible,” he said, adding hand washing isn’t done often. 

Jim Spatz, executive chairman of Southwest Properties, said the Pavilion’s construction site on the corner of South Park and Sackville streets sees about 70 per cent of workers show up each day. 

“Right when this started, we had a drop off in construction workers on the site down to a little over 50 per cent,” Spatz said. 

After some adjustments were made, more workers returned to the job, but Spatz acknowledged some still aren’t comfortable – note the 30 per cent decrease. 

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