The National Nuclear Security Administration reported just over 40 new confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 this week, a rate of growth that’s on the low end of the weekly average for the past eight weeks.
It was around that time, in late February, when new confirmed cases among civil servants and contractors across the nuclear security enterprise dipped below 100 a week for the first time in five months, according to data provided by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) headquarters in Washington.
As of Friday, the NNSA had reported a confirmed total of 5,293 cases of COVID-19 since January 2020, when the viral disease — caused by the novel coronavirus that broke out in Wuhan, China in 2019 — was confirmed to have reached U.S. shores. The count includes civil servants and contractors. Among these cases, 16 were fatal, NNSA said.
As with the rest of the country, the number of vaccinated people across the NNSA complex continued to rise this week.
As of Friday, more than 5,000 personnel at Pantex and Y-12 — including DOE federal employees — had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. That’s about 1,000 more than a week ago, a spokesperson for Consolidated Nuclear Security, prime contractor for the sites, wrote in an email.
About 3,600 employees across the two sites had received a second dose at deadline, said the spokesperson, up about 1,600, compared with last week. Two of the three vaccines available in the U.S. require two doses. Of those total doses, about 1,600 were administered at Pantex, flat compared with last week and flat for the second consecutive week.
At Y-12, about 3,400 employees had received at least a dose at deadline, up around 1,000 from a week ago. Y-12 started administering vaccines on-site April 2, the spokesperson said. The Y-12 figures account for vaccinations administered off-site before the complex was cleared to give out doses inside the fence.
Meanwhile, at the Nevada National Security Site, about 1,800 people had gotten at least one dose, flat compared with last week, while 1,600 had received a second dose, about 100 more than last week, a spokesperson said Thursday in an email. About half the people at the site were still teleworking.
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: 318 (+1)
At deadline Friday, Livermore had vaccinated about 1,800 people, a spokesperson said. The lab is a designated point of distribution for the vaccine in California. Livermore in March received a stockpile of about 2,000 doses from DOE and NNSA in collaboration with the Pentagon, the Livermore spokesperson said.
Those 2,000 doses will cover “about one quarter of our population,” the lab spokesperson said.
The Livermore spokesperson declined to say whether the vaccine Livermore received requires two doses or one to reach its maximum effectiveness.
Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Cases: 813 (+2. 758 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. A source said last week that some 2,000 lab personnel had received two vaccine doses, and about twice as many had gotten at least one dose.
Internal tests: 18,016 (+134. A lab spokesperson said Friday these on-site tests have resulted in 255 positive results: one more than last week and the first positive test the lab has externally reported from its internal sweeps in two weeks).
Teleworking: Roughly 60% of all employees. About 5% of the staff returned to the site this week, compared with last week, the spokesperson said.
Sandia National Laboratories:
In March, 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 April 2.
Cases: 828 (+18).
Internal tests: 11,282 (+206).
Sandia started vaccinations the week of Jan. 11. Since then, a labs spokesperson said, “at Sandia’s New Mexico site, 1,680 people have been fully vaccinated through the onsite clinic and another 1,870 people have been fully vaccinated at offsite locations. At Sandia’s California site, 224 people have been fully vaccinated at offsite locations. In total, 3,774 people have been fully vaccinated so far.”
Teleworking: Roughly 65% of all employees, flat compared with the prior week.
