There are currently 473 active cases of COVID-19 within the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup complex as of close of business on Wednesday, which is up significantly from the past two weeks.
The latest figure was provided in a Thursday email from a DOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) spokesperson. The tally represents a jump from the 381 reported last week as well as the 431 active cases two weeks ago.
During 2020, EM confirmed more than 2,600 cases of the coronavirus at its facilities.
On Friday, a spokesperson for the DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina said there are currently 222 employees quarantined with COVID-19 at that facility. That is up slightly from the Jan. 8 figure of 213.
Managers at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico learned of 25 new cases of COVID-19 at the transuranic waste site between Jan. 6 and Jan. 12, the prime contractor there said in a Thursday Twitter post. Altogether, the waste complex has confirmed 223 total cases since the pandemic began in the United States in early 2020, the post said.
In addition, there have been 10 positive cases reported at the Hanford Site in Washington state over the past week, according to a DOE Hanford contractor website. That brings the total at the former plutonium production facility to roughly 590.
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) is feeling better although still quarantined due to COVID-19 after receiving a positive test last week, a spokesperson for the congressman said via email Friday. Fleischmann’s district includes part of the Oak Ridge Site and he is a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
As of Friday afternoon, the United States has confirmed about 23.4 million cases of COVID-19 with more than 389,000 deaths resulting from the illness, according to an online tracker run by Johns Hopkins University.
