Recoveries handily outpaced new cases of COVID-19 at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week, as the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency confirmed 107 active cases of the viral disease among its civil servant and contractor employees.
That was 53 fewer active cases than the week before, an agency spokesperson told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing Friday afternoon. So far, there have been a cumulative total of 484 cases of COVID-19 at the NNSA since the first confirmed U.S. case in January. Of the NNSA employees confirmed to have been infected, 375 had recovered and two had died, as of Friday.
Except for Texas, all the states that host major NNSA sites posted fewer new confirmed cases of COVID-19 last week than they did in the prior week. That marks a leveling off of the summer surge reported in many of these states after Memorial Day, which prompted some state and local governments to again shutter or limit business operations, and to impose mandatory mask-wearing when it is not possible to remain 6 feet away from others.
Most NNSA sites require personnel to wear face masks. One, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, requires anybody reporting to work inside the fence to submit to random COVID-19 testing.
National Labs Cases
Following are the reported numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases at NNSA nuclear weapons labs, and increases relative to the prior week, as reported Friday.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:
Cases: 52 (+0). Livermore is the only lab that does not test its own employees. Cases were level week to week, and the California facility had no active cases on campus at all, as of Friday. “They have all recovered,” a spokesperson said.
Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Cases: 51 (+2).
Internal tests: 4,167 (+359).
Teleworking: Roughly 50% of all employees.
Sandia National Laboratories:
Cases total: 48 (+3).
Cases, Albuquerque, N.M.: 37 (+2).
Cases, Livermore, Calif.: 11 (+1).
Internal tests, total: 2,150 (+100). Sandia tests only employees at their request, and may limit tests to employees reporting to work on-site.
Teleworking: 60%-75% of all employees.
Sandia has diverted anyone needing a new badge to get on-site at Albuquerque, N.M., to the Center for Global Security and Cooperation after the nearby Innovation Parkway Office Center closed Friday because of a case of COVID-19 among the workforce there.
As of Monday, the Innovation Parkway Office Center (IPOC) remained closed indefinitely, according to a note the labs complex posted online Sunday. One person at the center has tested positive, and Sandia started contact tracing among other IPOC workers ahead of the weekend, the facility said Friday.
