COVID-19 health and safety challenges on construction sites: unfolding novel dimensions for construction industries in developing countries

A sudden COVID-19 outbreak has significantly impacted construction site health and safety (H&S). Against this backdrop, this paper aimed to explore the major challenges for pandemic management in implementing COVID-19 H&S measures on construction sites, particularly in developing countries. Following a comprehensive literature review, a total of 20 relevant challenges were identified. A self-completion questionnaire survey involving Malaysian construction practitioners was further employed to prioritize these challenges using descriptive statistics. Finally, a factor analysis unfolded five major underlying dimensions of these challenges, relating to lack of resources and inherent nature of construction, negligence and ignorance, low-wage blue-collar workforce, ineffective H&S management and poor sanitizing and disinfecting strategies. This work is a valuable reference in assisting industry practitioners to further enhance H&S performance during a communicable disease outbreak such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the findings highlighted the current deficiencies of the H&S system in the context of a developing country and the necessity to devise responsive strategies in curbing the transmission of future diseases.