Although it picked up 101 new cases this week, COVID-19 recoveries continued to exceed new infections at the National Nuclear Security Administration as sites continued vaccinating personnel, an agency spokesperson said.
There were 503 active COVID-19 cases among the nuclear-weapons agency’s contractors and federal personnel this week, down 75 from the prior week. Recoveries have now outpaced new infections in the official count for more than a month.
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had at deadline tracked 4,860 cumulative cases of COVID-19 since the disease’s confirmed arrival in the U.S. a little more than a year ago.
Of the total confirmed cases at the NNSA, 10 were fatal. As with the country generally, most people at NNSA recover from their confirmed infections of COVID-19, the viral disease caused by the novel coronavirus that broke out in Wuhan, China, in 2019.
Meanwhile, sites continued vaccine rollouts this week. At the Nevada National Security Site, about 200 people on site have received two doses of the vaccine, and 1,100 have received one. The existing vaccines can provide immunization after two doses, each of which may be administered weeks apart.
The Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, had combined for more than 1,400 vaccinations at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, “including 996 doses administered on-site at Pantex; the remainder were vaccinated by off-site providers in accordance with the states’ phased approaches,” a spokesperson for the plants’ prime contractor, Consolidated Nuclear Security, said Friday in an email.
Pantex is an approved point of distribution. Y-12 is “awaiting approval” to become a point of distribution, the Consolidated Nuclear Security spokesperson said.
National Laboratories Cases
Following are the reported numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases at NNSA nuclear weapons laboratories, along with increases relative to the prior week and the number of people vaccinated, as provided Friday by the labs.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:
Cases: 258 (+3). Livermore has performed “limited testing of employees” for “several weeks,” a lab spokesperson said Friday after deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The spokesperson did not say how many people have been tested at Livermore, and the lab did not disclose the date on which it began testing internally. The laboratory has been designated as a point of distribution for vaccines but had not received any doses as of Friday, the spokesperson said. Livermore is the only nuclear weapons laboratory that had not received any doses, at deadline.
Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Cases: 769 (+18. 656 people who got sick had recovered, as of deadline, while four had died). Los Alamos has started vaccinations, but a spokesperson declined to say how many personnel there had received doses. The local Los Alamos Reporter, citing a lab official, said Los Alamos has vaccinated 500 people.
Internal tests: 14,798 (+642. A lab spokesperson said Friday these on-site tests have resulted in 242 positive results).
Teleworking: Roughly 65% of all employees. Los Alamos is slowly bringing more people back on site after greatly scaling back on-site operations in November, when a nationwide surge caused cases in New Mexico to soar.
Sandia National Laboratories:
Cases: 712 (+12. Sandia started vaccinations the week of Jan. 11 and has since vaccinated 202 people, a labs spokesperson said Friday).
Albuquerque: 648 (+12)
California: 64 (+0)
Internal tests: 9,486 (+218 cumulative).
Teleworking: Roughly 40% of all employees, down from between 40% to 45% a week ago.
Editor’s note, 02/15/2021, 2:28 p.m. Eastern time: the story was updated with comment from a spokesperson from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
