An employee of the Energy Department’s support services contractor at the Hanford Site in Washington has the second confirmed case of COVID-19 at the former plutonium production complex.
In a weekend memo to employees of Mission Support Alliance, President Bob Wilkinson and Chief Operating Officer Amy Basche said they recently learned “a member of the MSA family” who worked at firehouse building 609 A had tested positive for the novel coronavirus 2019.
The employee’s last day of work was April 9. The company declined to say if the individual is hospitalized or recovering at home. The employee is not being identified, MSA said.
The regional Benton-Franklin Health District is responsible for interacting with people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the vicinity of the Hanford Site, according to MSA. This includes identifying other people the infected individual might have come in contact with.
On April 16, Hanford waste tank contractor Washington River Protection Solutions announced one of its employees had tested positive.
Only perhaps 20% of Hanford’s normal 11,000-person workforce is on-site these days as DOE tries to hinder the spread of COVID-19. The Hanford website was not reporting any COVID-19 related building access restrictions as of Wednesday.
