The Department of Energy has suspended centralized collection of weekly COVID-19 summary information from its labs, plants, and nuclear cleanup sites, a spokesperson with the agency’s Office of Environmental Management said Monday.
“Most DOE locations are at a low COVID-19 transmission rate in accordance with CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] Community Levels,” the spokesperson said in an email reply to an inquiry from ExchangeMonitor.
“Though the pause has been implemented, organizations remain ready to regenerate the report, should conditions warrant,” the spokesperson went on to say.
Suspension of the weekly COVID reflects decreasing public alarm over the virus.
Interviewed Sunday on the CBS new program 60 Minutes, President Joe Biden said: “The pandemic is over.
“We still have a problem with COVID,” Biden said, according to a transcript of the interview. “We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”
The DOE said last month it was no longer collecting data on vaccination status of employees, contractors and visitors at its properties.
The DOE still requires properties with high local transmission rates as reported to CDC to continue wearing masks inside. As of Monday, the Portsmouth Site in Ohio appeared to be about the only nuclear cleanup property in that category this week.
On Sept. 1, the Office of Environmental Management reported there were 113 confirmed weekly cases of COVID-19, or 29 more than the prior seven-day period.
