The Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico has now confirmed a total of 243 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in the United States a little more than a year ago while the Hanford Site in Washington state is up to about 645 cases during the same period.
That is based upon the latest social media and Internet postings by contractors at the transuranic waste site and the former plutonium production complex.
There were six cases of COVID-19 confirmed at WIPP between Jan. 20 and Jan. 27, prime contractor Nuclear Waste Partnership said in a Facebook post late last week. There remained a total of 16 active cases of COVID-19 at the transuranic waste disposal complex near Carlsbad, N.M., according to the post.
Meanwhile, the Hanford Site is up to about 645 cases since the start of the pandemic, following a website post confirming three new cases on Sunday.
As of Monday afternoon the United States has more than 26.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 with roughly 445,000 deaths as a result, according to an online tracker overseen by Johns Hopkins University.
