In a stark reminder that the pandemic is not over, even with confirmed cases falling across the nuclear security enterprise, two more National Nuclear Security Administration personnel died from COVID-19 this week.
The two fatalities, one at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., and the other at the Nevada National Security Site, brought total confirmed pandemic deaths at the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency to 14, as of Friday, according to a spokesperson at agency headquarters in Washington.
The fatal cases included: four at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico; three at the Nevada National Security Site; one at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas; one at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.; one at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C.; and four at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
As vaccinations continued across the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) labs, plants and sites, the number of new COVID-19 cases continued to fall this week, marking the third consecutive week in which the NNSA confirmed fewer new infections than in the last.
The agency had tracked 77 new cases this week among its federal employees and contractors at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. That was the lowest weekly increase the agency has reported since early October. At the same time, reported recoveries outpaced new infections, making for 462 active cases as of Friday: the fewest since mid-November and well down from the peak of 1,053 the agency disclosed the week of Christmas.
Vaccine data, when available, generally showed an increase in doses among the civilian nuclear-weapons workforce.
At the Nevada National Security Site, about 500 people on site have received two doses of the vaccine, and 1,200 have received one, a site spokesperson said Friday. That’s up about 300 and 100, respectively, compared with last week. Existing COVID-19 vaccines can provide immunization after two doses, each of which may be administered weeks apart. About half the people at the Nevada National Security Site were teleworking this week.
The Y-12 National Security Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, had combined for about 1,50 vaccinations at deadline, up from 1,400 last week. That included 1,158 doses on site at Pantex, a Texas-certified point of distribution, up from 996 doses last week at the site. “[T]he remainder were vaccinated by off-site providers in accordance with the states’ phased approaches,” a spokesperson for the plants’ prime contractor, Consolidated Nuclear Security, wrote in an email Friday.
Y-12 has applied to be a point of distribution in Tennessee, but the state’s Department of Health had not approved the application at deadline.
The Kansas City National Security Campus in Kansas City, Mo., the NNSA’s assembly hub for non-nuclear nuclear-weapon parts, is not a point of distribution for the COVID-19 vaccine, but “certain employees” have been vaccinated in accordance with state guidelines, a spokesperson said in January. The plant has since declined to say how many of its employees have received vaccines.
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:
Did not reply to a request for comment by deadline for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor.
Livermore has been designated as a point of distribution for vaccines.
Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Cases: 778 (+9. 681 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. The local Los Alamos Reporter, citing a lab official, said Los Alamos had vaccinated 500 people, as of last week.
“We are not making vaccination numbers public,” the lab spokesperson said Friday.
Internal tests: 14,996 (+198. A lab spokesperson said Friday these on-site tests have resulted in 245 positive results).
Teleworking: Roughly 65% of all employees, flat compared with last week. Los Alamos is slowly bringing more people back on site after greatly scaling back on-site operations in November, when a nationwide surge caused cases in New Mexico to soar.
Sandia National Laboratories:
Cases: 727 (+15. Sandia started vaccinations the week of Jan. 11 and has since vaccinated 202 people, a labs spokesperson said Friday. That’s flat compared with last week).
Albuquerque: 662 (+14)
California: 65 (+1)
Internal tests: 9,792 (+306 cumulative).
Teleworking: Roughly 45% of all employees, about the same as a week ago.
