25 new coronavirus cases at WIPP

The COVID-19 pandemic continued to surge at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant as 25 new cases were reported on Thursday bringing WIPP’s total caseload to 223.

The recent infections were among 23 employees of Nuclear Waste Partnership, WIPP’s primary operations contractor, one from an unnamed subcontractor hired by NWP and another at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office.

NWP does not name the specific subcontractors employing infected workers to protect patient identities, said spokesman Donavan Mager.

The employees were last at the WIPP site as late as Jan. 6, with the cases reported between that date and Jan. 12, per a WIPP news release.

As of Thursday, WIPP reported 184 of its infected employees had recovered from the virus.