During the past week there were 23 confirmed, active cases of COVID-19 among the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management’s federal and contractor workforce, an increase of 10 from the prior week, according to a spokesperson.
That is still lower than the 27 recorded two weeks earlier. As of Monday morning, there was no ruling yet out of the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on the U.S. government’s challenge to a nationwide restraining order against enforcement of a federal vaccination mandate for contractor employees. The case was argued April 8 before a three-member appeals panel.
The DOE has said its vaccination rate among both direct federal employees and its contractor workforce is in the high 90s.
The agency in March ceased counting active COVID cases among members of its workforce who were teleworking. Since then, the weekly counts have tallied only people who report to work on site and subsequently tested positive.