As of Sept. 30, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has recorded more than 6,900 cases of COVID-19 and dozens of fatalities within the weapons complex since the pandemic began, according to data provided Friday by a spokesperson.
The number of deaths is now 41 among federal and contractor employees in the DOE weapons cleanup complex, according to the data, the spokesperson said.
The administration of President Joe Biden has called for all federal employees to receive their final shot of vaccine against coronavirus infection by Nov. 8. Contract staff whose employers have not already ordered an earlier deadline, face a Dec. 8 deadline.
Healthcare officials have said it typically takes about two weeks after the final shot before an individual has the benefit of the maximum amount of immunity to the potentially-deadly virus.
Last week, the Department of Energy issued guidance, saying vaccine mandates should be inserted into existing major site contracts.
Some contractor vaccination deadlines will kick in before the federal ones. Triad National Security, the manager of DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, has given its employees until this Friday to be inoculated. UCOR, the Amentum-Jacobs partnership in charge of cleanup at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, has set a Nov. 1 deadline.
Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the Fluor-led team that manages the DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina has given its employees until Nov. 30 to be vaccinated.
Nationally, 44.3 million Americans have been infected and 713,000 have died as a result of COVID-19, according to the online Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. According to the website, 57% of the U.S. population or roughly 186.6 million people have been inoculated. Also, Monday morning, the Associated Press reported Merck was asking the Food and Drug Administration to approve use of an antiviral pill to combat the symptoms of COVID-19.
