The National Nuclear Security Administration has logged about 60 new COVID-19 cases a week, give or take, over the last month, which marks the third since multiple major nuclear weapons sites started vaccinations on premises.
Since January, when most major civilian nuclear weapon sites started administering vaccines inside the fence, confirmed COVID transmission rates at the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear weapons agency have dropped from several hundred every week to not much more than 50 every week, according to official tallies shared with Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) headquarters in Washington.
This week, the NNSA had 240 active cases of COVID-19, down from 357 the week before. Cumulatively, the agency has tracked 5,166 confirmed, positive cases of COVID-19 since the World Health Organization declared the viral disease caused by the novel coronavirus a pandemic.
Across the nuclear security enterprise, where essential national security workers have been getting shots since at least January, the pace of vaccinations slowed.
As of this week, more than 2,300 personnel — including DOE federal employees — at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, and the Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s about 300 more than a week ago. Of those doses, 1,174 were administered at Pantex, about flat week-to-week. Off-site providers accounted for the remainder, a spokesperson for the site’s prime contractor, Consolidated Nuclear Security, said.
About 1,600 employees across the two sites received a second dose, the spokesperson said. That’s up by about 100 from last week. Two of the three vaccines available in the U.S. require two doses.
At the Nevada National Security Site, more than 1,700 personnel had received one dose as of Wednesday, about flat compared with the week before. Some 1,200 had received two doses, up by more than 100 from the prior week, a spokesperson for management and operations contractor Mission Support and Test Services said. About half the Nevada Site workforce was still telecommuting, at deadline Friday.
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: 308 (+10)
Livermore has been designated as a point of distribution for vaccines but had not received any vaccines at deadline, the only lab for which that was the case, as of this writing.
Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Cases: 802 (+3. 744 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.
Internal tests: 17,572 (+617. A lab spokesperson said Friday these on-site tests have resulted in 253 positive results: one more positive test than last week).
Teleworking: Roughly 65% of all employees, flat compared with last week.
Sandia National Laboratories:
This month, Sandia National Laboratories instituted a one-week lag time reporting COVID data to the public because of “a shift in when our numbers are being updated internally,” a spokesperson said.
Here are the most recent numbers available for Sandia at deadline, which were current as of March 12.
Cases: 784 (+18).
Internal tests: 10,587 (+251).
Sandia started vaccinations the week of Jan. 11, the labs network has since vaccinated 502 people, flat compared with the prior week, according to the spokesperson.
Teleworking: Roughly 45% of all employees, flat compared with the prior week.
