The Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., is set to reopen its Innovation Parkway Office Center on Tuesday, following a deep cleaning necessitated by a COVID-19 case on-site.
After announcing confirmation Friday that an individual working in the building had caught the viral disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Sandia diverted anyone needing badging to enter the facility to the Center for Global Security and Cooperation from the usual Innovation Parkway location.
The Department of Energy facility said said Monday it has completed contact tracing, started Friday, among other staff at the Innovation Parkway building.
As of last week, Sandia had confirmed 48 cases of COVID-19 among its workforce. Some 60% to 75% of lab employees have been working remotely since the pandemic began its rapid spread across the country early this spring.
Even one confirmed case can set off a chain reaction of two-week home quarantines among co-workers who might have been in close contact with the infected. The Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and its contractors usually will not say how many mission-essential people are away from nuclear-weapon sites due to quarantines. Such people have typically remained on-site throughout the pandemic response to continue deemed-essential national security work.
