Lab worker infected: LANL reports subcontractor tested positive

Person works on legacy waste, isn’t believed to have spread COVID-19

A subcontractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory has tested positive for the novel coronavirus and is quarantining at home.

It was the first case of the coronavirus infecting someone who works on lab property.

The subcontractor works for N3B, the company in charge of cleaning up the lab’s legacy waste generated before 1999, including during the Cold War and the Manhattan Project.

N3B officials said the subcontractor, who tested positive last week, didn’t likely spread the virus because the company had sharply reduced the number of people working at the site.

“Although this employee had been working on-site until a week ago, many of this employee’s co-workers were already working remotely and practicing social distancing to help prevent potential exposures,” N3B spokeswoman Kristin Henderson said.

Due to privacy rules, N3B can’t disclose the person’s job or health information, such as how sick the employee was when the virus was detected or what prompted the test, Henderson said.

The state Department of Health is looking into the employee’s travels, contacts and other factors that might have led to the infection but couldn’t discuss the investigation because of privacy laws, agency spokesman David Morgan said.

This case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, won’t prompt wider testing of N3B employees — for instance, those who show no symptoms but had traveled recently to higher-risk areas. The company will continue to follow the Health Department’s normal testing guidelines, Henderson said.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham made an indirect reference to the infected employee last week during a conference call with the White House when she urged President Donald Trump to provide an Army field hospital in New Mexico.

COVID-19, she said, was beginning to emerge around the lab, and if left unabated could create “significant national security issues.”

Since the pandemic began, the lab has worked to protect its staff, thwart the virus’ spread and perform its national security tasks, lab spokesman Matt Nerzig said.

That includes having people who aren’t doing “mission-essential” activities to telework, Nerzig said. “This significantly reduces the number of employees on laboratory property.”

N3B now has only about 20 employees at the lab, doing work that’s deemed essential, such as conducting radiological surveys at the contaminated Area G, maintaining the early warning system for the Buckman Direct Diversion, which provides drinking water supplies from the Rio Grande for the city of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County, and inspecting hazardous waste storage sites, Henderson said.

“Our focus in these trying times is the health and safety of our workers and the public,” Henderson said. “We’re hoping for our team member’s speedy recovery.”