On March 24, as the coronavirus pandemic spread, the city of Austin, Texas enacted a stay home-work safe order that shut down any non-essential construction. But a week later, Gov. Greg Abbott (R), said all construction in the state should go on, so Austin's commercial and residential projects reopened.
City Mayor Steve Adler commissioned a research team at the University of Texas medical school in Houston to explore the implications of keeping construction sites open. Researchers determined by examining statistics and mathematical modeling that keeping those projects open could worsen the virus spread.