Confirmed active cases of COVID-19 were well below the one-month acreage across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s federal and contractor workforce this week, falling to 87, or about 40% lower than a month ago, the agency said Friday.
Although that’s over four times as many active cases as the civilian nuclear weapon steward reported heading into Memorial Day weekend in 2020, about six months after the novel coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China, it’s a shadow of the active cases reported in December in January, when ongoing infections routinely topped 1,000 across the nuclear security enterprise.
Where numbers were available, they showed Friday that vaccinations across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) labs, plans and sites are increasing, as they have all year. Some sites, however, appeared close to a saturation point at deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
As of Friday, more than 1,750 employees at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, were fully vaccinated: up by about 50 after two weeks of no additional reported vaccinations. Almost 3,600 employees at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., were fully vaccinated, up about 100 compared with last week, a spokesperson for the jointly managed sites wrote Friday in an email.
Y-12 began providing vaccinations on Wednesday, March 31 and began giving second-doses on April 22, 2021.
As of Wednesday May 5, the Nevada National Security Site had vaccinated more than 2,000 personnel with a first dose and more than 1,900 personnel with a second dose, flat for the second consecutive week, compared with the prior week, a spokesperson wrote Friday in an email. About half the workforce was telecommuting.
The Kansas City National Security Campus in Missouri declined this week to share any COVID-19 figures.
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: 334 (+1)
At deadline Friday, Livermore had given out at least 2,300 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a spokesperson.
Livermore is a designated point of distribution for the vaccine in California and in March received its stockpile of doses from DOE and NNSA in collaboration with the Pentagon, the Livermore spokesperson has said.
Those doses administered so far covered “about one quarter of our population,” the lab spokesperson has said.
Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Cases: 854 (+9. 820 people who got sick had recovered, as of deadline). Los Alamos personnel have received thousands of doses, but a spokesperson declined to say exactly how many personnel there were fully vaccinated as of Friday.
Internal tests: 19,923 (+550. A lab spokesperson said Friday these on-site tests have resulted in 268 positive results, up by one, compared with last week).
Teleworking: Roughly 55% of all employees, flat compared with last week.
Sandia National Laboratories:
In March, Sandia National Laboratories instituted a one-week lag time reporting COVID data to the public. Below are the most recent numbers available for Sandia at deadline, which were current as of May 21.
Cases: 876 (+2).
Internal tests: 12,118 (+43).
Sandia started vaccinations the week of Jan. 11.
Since then, a total of 12,064 people had been fully vaccinated at Sandia at deadline, up 536 from a week ago, a spokesperson said Friday.
At Sandia’s New Mexico site, 4,225 people had been fully vaccinated through the onsite clinic as of Friday, up 294 from the prior week. Another 6,522 people had been fully vaccinated at offsite locations, up 196 from the prior week.
At Sandia’s California site, 380 people had been fully vaccinated onsite, flat compared with the prior week, while another 937 people had been fully vaccinated at offsite locations, up 46 from the prior week.
Teleworking: Roughly 55% of all employees, flat compared with the prior week.
