The roughly 250 confirmed, active COVID-19 cases across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s complex at the end of October was only a little higher than the number the agency recorded for the corresponding week of 2020 but down by about half from the summer’s high.
Also, as of late this month, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had confirmed two fatalities at the Nevada National Security Site, one at the Y-12 National Security Complex and one at the Sandia National Laboratories since the end of September. That brought the total of confirmed COVID-19 fatalities at NNSA labs, plans and sites to 29 since the pandemic was confirmed to have reached the U.S. in January 2020.
Active, confirmed cases across NNSA sites are now down nearly 200 from their 2021 high of more than 445 in mid-September. Despite a slight rebound in the final weeks of October, cases this month hit their lowest level of the year since August.
The 2021 high water mark, however, was dramatically higher than the 100 or so active cases in the same week of 2020 and also the most active cases the agency had confirmed in a week since Nov. 15, 2020, which marked the start of a winter surge that by January would drive confirmed infections across the complex to their pandemic peak.
Vaccination rates, meanwhile, trended high across the nuclear enterprise, where every site that shares data reported more employees vaccinated than not. President Joe Biden in early September ordered most federal employees and contractors to get a vaccination or find another job, and all NNSA sites that share vaccine data have posted increases in vaccination rates since.
At the nuclear weapons laboratories, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos 88% and 99%, of employees respectively, were fully vaccinated as of Friday, according to labs spokespersons. At the Sandia National Laboratories, around 90% of employees were fully vaccinated, according to data provided by a spokesperson.
Also since the week the Biden administration’s mandate came down, vaccinations at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, rose to 2,160 from 2,000. At the other big NNSA nuclear-production site, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., vaccinations rose to 4,930 from 4,400 since the presidential mandate. That’s according to data from a spokesperson with Consolidated Nuclear Security, which manages both sites.
At the Nevada National Security site about 2,000 people had been fully vaccinated as part of management and operations contractor Mission Support and Test Services’ campaign to provide shots on site. The campaign wrapped up before the federal mandate hit, but a spokesperson said Friday that the site is tabulating required proof-of-vaccinations from employees who were inoculated outside the fence.
At Los Alamos, Friday’s fully vaccination rate of 99% topped the 85% rate from August, when lab operations contractor Triad National Security announced what appeared to be the first COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the NNSA nuclear-weapons complex.
At Lawrence Livermore, which started sharing vaccination rates in October, the proportion of fully vaccinated employees crept up 2% during the month to 88%, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
COVID-19 vaccines are now required at all major NNSA nuclear weapon sites by Dec. 8, except for Los Alamos, which required vaccinations by Oct. 15. The lab has since fired some 30 people for refusing to comply with the mandate, provided around 30 medical exemptions and placed another 150 or so on leave without pay: the only accommodation the lab provides for religious refusals.
Contractor mandates have spurred a host of lawsuits across the country. The newest such lawsuit in the federal District Court for New Mexico pitted some religious objectors at Los Alamos against Triad. In a Friday hearing scheduled to wrap up after deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, lab employees were asking a federal judge to grant a preliminary injunction block the lab from putting objectors on unpaid leave. Los Alamos only has to hold the jobs of those on unpaid leave open for about a month, according to the plaintiffs’ complaint.
