The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tracked five new cases of COVID-19 across its national workforce this week, raising the cumulative total since the outbreak started to 70. However, after accounting for recoveries, the count of active confirmed cases across the enterprise was down to 25, agency headquarters in Washington said Friday.
The respiratory disease had not killed anyone in the nuclear-weapons workforce as of this week, according to the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch. Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor tracks these cases from one Friday to the next.
The NNSA does not disclose the number of people unable to work during the COVID-19 pandemic, either due to being ill, being quarantined after contact with a co-worker diagnosed with the disease, or because their work requires access to secure facilities that are off-limits for the time being. The locations of new cases are also not identified.
At deadline for NS&D Monitor, 45 people at NNSA sites had recovered from COVID-19, the agency said.
Typically, there are fewer cases of COVID-19 at NNSA sites than there are people quarantining at home for mandatory two-week isolation after contact with an infected co-worker.
National Nuclear Security Administration sites, labs, production sites and the Nevada National Security Site generally take federal, state, and local guidelines into account when deciding how many people, if any, to bring back on site during the pandemic. At every site, more people than not are still at home. Only those working on the agency’s most essential missions are doing so, though not necessarily at the same pace they might manage without COVID-19 restrictions.
The main NNSA production sites, as they have since the outbreak started, were still running their usual shifts: the Kansas City National Security Campus in Kansas City, Mo.; the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
All those sites are screening people for COVID-19 symptoms, performing temperature screenings of employees, and distributing limited amounts of personal protective equipment when it is not possible for people to remain more than 6 feet apart, according to the sites.
The Kansas City operation, meanwhile, is now one week into the Eric Wollerman era. Wollerman took over as president of site prime Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies on April 30 from John Ricciardelli. For much of the outbreak, the NNSA’s hub for manufacturing the non-nuclear parts of nuclear weapons sat in the middle of the worst outbreak of any weapon-production site.
That changed this week, when skyrocketing cases near the remote Pantex Plant put that nuclear-weapons servicing center, at the heart of the civilian nuclear-security complex, in a worse spot than any other NNSA host region.
Total cases in Potter County soared past 1,000 this week, according to the Amarillo Public Health Department: about double Kansas City, Mo.’s count. The county has a COVID-19 perfect storm: a rural locale with a large, declared-essential industry at Pantex, a meat-packing plant, and a county jail.
This week, a federal “strike force” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived in the city. Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson announced the team’s then-impending arrival in a Facebook post May 2. The local Amarillo Globe-News reported the federal team would be testing at the Tysons Foods meat plant in Potter County through Saturday. The meat plant is 10 miles by road from Pantex.
“Prepare yourselves that our positive test results are going to go up in the next 7-14 days,” Nelson wrote in her Facebook post. “This is a good thing. The more data we have, the greater our information and the tools we will have to combat the spread.
“Please continue to stay in as much as possible and wear a mask when you must go out,” Nelson added.
The frenzy of testing and attention in the Texas panhandle has kept Pantex firmly in mission-critical operations, meaning only essential personnel and some support staff are allowed on site. Y-12, managed like Pantex by the Bechtel National-led Consolidated Nuclear Security, plans to ramp back up to normal operations, albeit with the maximum possible level of telework, by about the end of next week.
Asked Thursday whether the NNSA has done an adequate job to date of continuing nuclear weapons production while also preventing the spread of disease, Pantex’s congressman, outgoing House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said “yes.”
Although “there has been some criticism at NNSA, just like in other parts of the government,” Thornberry said.
COVID-19 Cases in NNSA Host Regions
Following is a digest of confirmed COVID-19 cases, including fatal cases, in the host cities and counties of NNSA nuclear weapons sites.
The figures below are the cumulative cases recorded since the first confirmed U.S .instance of COVID-19 in January, after it initially appeared in Wuhan, China. Data come from a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and from select states, counties, and cities, where noted. The Monitor tracks weekly changes, using the latest data available at deadline, which is sometimes current as of the Thursday before publication.
Testing figures report the number of aggregate tests, not the number of individuals tested.
Kansas City, Mo. – Kansas City National Security Campus
The city so far has a total of 730 total confirmed cases and 16 deaths, up from 573 confirmed cases and 14 deaths last week. Missouri had more than 8,600 cases and 329 total deaths statewide, up from 7,500 confirmed cases and 329 deaths a week ago. There had been more than 80,700 tests performed in Missouri as of Friday, up from about 65,000 a week ago, and 50,000 a week before that.
Missouri was among the first states to reopen businesses shuttered to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This week, the state allowed all businesses to reopen, provided they continue to practice social distancing with the federally recommended 6 feet between people.
New Mexico – NNSA Albuquerque, Albuquerque; Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque; Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos
New Mexico had about 4,500 confirmed total cases and 172 deaths at deadline, up sharply from 3,410 cases and 123 total deaths a week ago. Bernalillo County, near Albuquerque and Sandia, had more than 1,000 confirmed positive cases and 44 deaths at deadline, up from more than 800 cases and 35 deaths a week ago. More than 85,600 tests had been performed in New Mexico, rising from about 67,800 a week ago, and 41,000 the week before that, according to the state and the Hopkins tracker.
Sandia has been able to test its own employees in Albuquerque, and Livermore, Calif., for about the past three weeks, though it will not say how many employee tests it has done. Sandia contracts its sample collection out to AB Staffing Solutions of Gilbert, Ariz., and analyzes the tests at its own labs in Albuquerque. The lab is also authorized to analyze samples collected from the general public.
Sandia this week temporarily closed parts of the MESA complex where it produces radiation-hardened microelectronics for nuclear weapons after someone working there tested positive for COVID-19. The facility reopened Thursday. The lab has confirmed a total of 12 COVID-19 cases.
Los Alamos County held steady week over week at six total confirmed cases and no deaths, maintaining that level of confirmed infections for the third consecutive week.
Cases in the counties surrounding Los Alamos rose this week. Sandoval County had 439 confirmed cases and 20 deaths at deadline, up from 389 confirmed cases and 13 deaths a week ago. Sandoval has a worse outbreak than any other county near Los Alamos.
In other counties neighboring Los Alamos, cases rose by less than in previous weeks. Taos County had 20 confirmed cases and no deaths this week, up from 18 cases and no deaths last week. Rio Arriba had 26 cases, up from 14 cases last week. Santa Fe, N.M., south of Los Alamos, had 110 confirmed total cases, up from 100 confirmed a week ago. Nobody had died from COVID-19 in Santa Fe, at deadline.
Oak Ridge, Tenn., Anderson County – Y-12 National Security Complex
There were at deadline 28 confirmed cases and one death in Anderson County, Tenn., which includes the Y-12 National Security Complex. That is up from 23 confirmed cases a week ago, with no new deaths.
COVID-19 infections in Tennessee rose sharply for a second week in a row to more than 14,000 confirmed total cases and 238 total deaths, up from 10,735 cases and 199 deaths a week ago. There had been about 236,000 tests performed in Tennessee at deadline, up from 177,600 last week and 123,000 the week before, according to the state and the Hopkins tracker.
Livermore, Calif., Alameda County – Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (including Sandia, Calif.)
In Alameda County nearby the Livermore lab this week, there were more than 1,900 confirmed cases and 67 total deaths at deadline, up from 1,603 confirmed cases and 60 deaths a week ago.
The county’s cases have crept past those confirmed in nearby San Francisco, which had more than 1,800 confirmed cases and 32 total deaths, up from 1,499 confirmed cases and 25 deaths a week ago. The death toll in Santa Clara, Calif., some 30 miles south by road from Livermore, was 127 as of Friday, up from 111 deaths a week ago. Los Angeles had the most deaths in California: more than 1,400 at deadline, up almost a quarter from about 1,120 last week.
The Livermore National Laboratory itself is still tracking four confirmed cases of COVID-19. The infection rate has held steady for the past three weeks. The lab brought about 800 people back to work in April after winding down operations in May. As more people come back to work, the lab is tightening requirements for returning personnel, including requiring face masks.
California, the largest and most populous state in the union, had more than 62,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,500 total deaths at deadline, compared with 49,000 confirmed cases and 2,000 total deaths a week ago. There had been more than 840,000 total tests performed in California, at deadline.
Aiken, S.C., Aiken County – Savannah River Site
Aiken had about 110 confirmed cases at deadline Friday, with six deaths. That’s up from about 100 cases a week ago, with deaths holding flat at six.
The Savannah River Site itself had confirmed 13 total cases of COVID-19 at deadline Friday. Of those, 10 had recovered.
South Carolina overall had more than 7,100 confirmed cases and 316 total confirmed deaths this week, up from about 6,000 confirmed cases and 244 deaths last week. There had been about 75,670 tests performed in South Carolina as of deadline, up from about 56,500 a week ago, and 44,500 tests the week before that.
Amarillo, Texas, including Potter and Randall counties – Pantex Plant
The combined case counts of Potter and Randall counties near Amarillo are skyrocketing, led by a severe outbreak in Potter County to the north of Amarillo. Confirmed positive cases and deaths there have nearly doubled, compared with a week ago.
The counties had a combined total of 1,370 cases and 18 deaths at deadline, including 1,027 cases and 15 deaths in Potter and 343 cases and three deaths in Randall, according to the Amarillo Public Health Department. Last week at this time, the counties had a combined 712 cases: 499 for Potter and 213 for Randall. Potter County had eight COVID-19-related deaths a week ago, when Randall County still had three.
In the two counties, there have been a combined 6,139 tests performed.
Texas, which this month started reopening retail businesses and other places where people congregate, had more than 36,000 total confirmed cases and 985 total deaths, up from 29,200 cases and 816 total deaths this week. There had been more than 455,000 tests done in Texas as of Friday, up from 351,700 last week, and 225,000 the week before that, according to the state and the Hopkins tracker.
This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott allowed salons, barber shops and other cosmetology businesses to reopen, providing they regularly sanitize work stations, and practice social distancing of at least six feet between workers. The week after next, starting May 18, Texas plans to let offices, manufacturing facilities, and gyms reopen too, provided they keep occupancy at the 25% mark.
Last week, Abbott allowed all retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and malls to reopen, provided they only admit customers equal to “25% of their listed occupancy,” according to a statement.
Nevada – Nevada National Security Site
There were 44 confirmed cases in Nye County, Nev., near the northwestern perimeter of the former Nevada Test Site, seven more than a week ago. Nobody had died of COVID-19 in Nye County at deadline.
In Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County, which have most of the state’s cases and deaths, there were more than 4,500 cases and 245 deaths, up from 3,970 cases and 202 total deaths last week.
Statewide, Nevada had more than 5,800 cases and 297 deaths, up from 5,200 cases and 243 total deaths, a week ago. There had been about 51,357 tests performed in Nevada, as of deadline, up from about 43,500 a week ago, and 27,000 tests a week before that, according to the state and the Hopkins tracker.
The U.S. still had more confirmed COVID-19 cases than any other nation on Earth at deadline, with more than 75,000 confirmed deaths: about 13,000 more than last week. The increase in fatal cases this week was a little higher than the increase tracked the week before. Since the outbreak hit the U.S., more than 195,000 people domestically had recovered from their bouts with COVID-19.
