HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Houston real estate executive Jon Silberman has launched the Houston Coronavirus Business Group to advocate a re-opening of business activity.
The group is petitioning Texas governmental leaders to allow business to resume – with certain restrictions and precautions – on May 1.
The current stay-home order expires April 30 and Silberman said he has strong objections to extending the lockdown into May.
“When we started the group and began reaching out to small and medium size business owners and contractors, the response was an overwhelming agreement that the current situation cannotcontinue past the end of April,” Silberman says in a letter to elected officials. “The entrepreneurs and businesspeople in the trenches in Houston dealing with the impact of these governmental decisions – are telling us that the situation is dire and getting worse by the day. The impacts are spiraling down the economic chain and soon we will pass the point of no return and enter a downward economic spiral that will put the economy into a depression and any recovery will take many years.”
The organization’s website www.houstoncoronavirusbusinessgroup.com includes a petition for signatures.
“In addition, I intend to follow up and request meetings with the key officials and several of our group members to further advocate for the needs and interests of our group,” said Silberman, who is managing partner of the NAI Partners firm. “This has to be done now. Decisions are going to be made in the next few weeks that drastically affect lives, jobs, mental health and a lot more.”
Silberman said the lockdown is causing revenues to vanish, result in layoffs and furloughs. Companies and individuals are unable to pay rent or other obligations because of the economic contraction.
“Specially some of our suggestions as part of a general return to work May 1, include:
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Limit large public gatherings for the month of May
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Require/provide testing for anyone who thinks they have symptoms – or possibly even wider spread testing if available
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Require testing for any person(s) who has knowingly been in contact with someone who has a confirmed case
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Temperature testing and health questioning at certain locations
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14‐day quarantine for anyone testing positive
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For people over 65 or those with severe medical conditions, recommendations for those folks to stay home and avoid public contact
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No handshaking
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Encourage handwashing and extra sanitary precautions
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Focus on building additional hospital beds at places like NRG or the Convention Center to accommodate increased needs
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Continue to evaluate and measure results in terms of cases and deaths.”