An employee at the Germantown, Md., branch of Department of Energy headquarters tested positive for COVID-19 just days before that building advanced to Phase 1 of the agency’s remobilization plan.
As far as DOE’s contact tracing showed Friday, nobody who was in close contact with the infected Germantown worker became sick, according to a statement from Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. The sick person was last in Germantown on June 2.
Energy Department headquarters buildings in the Washington, D.C., region on June 8 began reopening their doors for employees to come back after months of telecommuting aimed at curbing the spread of the disease. On Monday, the buildings in Germantown and downtown Washington transitioned to Phase 2 of the reopening. That allows about 1,400 of DOE’s 7,000 headquarters employees to come back to their offices. At this point in the process, employees deemed vulnerable to COVID-19, but who want to work in their offices anyway, may volunteer to report back to work.
About 250 members of the DOE federal workforce in the capital region were authorized to return to the office in Phase 1 of the reopening. People who were at higher risk for serious health complications from COVID-19, the immunocompromised and the elderly, for example, were exempted from phase 1.
Returning employees will be asked not to enter DOE headquarters buildings if: they have had had flu-like symptoms, including a temperature over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, in the last 10 days; they have been in contact with someone who had COVID-19 in the last 14 days; or they have been told to self-quarantine in the last 14 days.
Those returning to work are encouraged, but not required, to wear face coverings, the reopening guidelines say. Employees are also asked to practice social distancing of 6 feet or more. The Energy Department plans to rearrange existing workspaces to accommodate distancing among employees.
The plan applies only to federal employees in the Washington area. The total DOE headquarters-region federal workforce includes some 1,000 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The case disclosed Friday makes for a total of at least 19 confirmed positive instances of COVID-19 at DOE headquarters facilities in the D.C. area. One Energy Department headquarters employee died from complications related to the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Another individual employed at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state has also tested positive for COVID-19, according to an online posting Monday. The worker was last on-site on June 24. The post did not reveal if the person was employed directly by DOE or a Hanford contractor.
The latest coronavirus infection brings the total number of cases at Hanford to 18, based on anecdotal reports. It is unknown how many of the infected Hanford workers have recovered and been cleared to resume work.
