Hanford orders new COVID vaccine requirement for 11,000 workers

Hanford nuclear reservation workers who do not provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19 will be required to be tested at least weekly for the coronavirus to be allowed on site.

The policy will cover about 11,000 Department of Energy, contractor and subcontractor workers. Many workers could be required to comply as soon as mid September.

Visitors on business to the site, which is closed to the general public, must provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from the past three days to enter any DOE building, under the new policy

The requirements for Hanford workers, announced Monday, followed a July 29 announcement by President Joe Biden that all workers for the federal government and its contractors must be vaccinated or be tested one to two times a week.

“If you want to do business with the federal government, get your workers vaccinated,” he said.

Biden’s order that all federal and federal contractor workers be vaccinated against COVID or undergo regular testing also applies to about 5,000 workers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, most of whom work in Richland.

Lab staff must provide their vaccination status by Sept. 10.

“We will continue to evaluate and prepare for the possibility of additional safety measures, including testing for those who attest to being unvaccinated or decline to disclose their status,” said Mike Schlender, PNNL’s deputy lab director for operations.

Hanford site

Most work at the Hanford site is done by companies that are awarded contracts, primarily for environmental cleanup.

The 586-square-mile Hanford site in Eastern Washington was used to produce two-thirds of the plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during World War II and the Cold War.

Now about $2.5 billion is spent each year on cleanup of the contaminated site.

Hanford reports the number of employees who test positive for COVID-19 on a daily alert system, but no running total was immediately available to the Tri-City Herald.

The alert system has reported as many as 24 new daily cases at the site on a single day in August 2021, but other days there have been just one new case reported.

Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties, said at a press briefing this month that substantial numbers of cases could be expected among the large Hanford workforce, given the high number of new COVID-19 cases throughout the Tri-Cities area.

DOE has launched a website for federal workers to submit information about whether they are vaccinated. A website for contractor workers launches Sept. 7.

Workers also must provide proof of vaccination to their managers.

Testing to be paid time

DOE and its contractors are working on a COVID-19 testing program and expect to have the program operating in early October.

Employees who are required to be tested and fail to do so will have their access to the site restricted, according to the new Hanford policy.

Workers will not be charged for testing, and federal and contractor workers may be tested during time they are being paid for work. Subcontractors will decide whether they will pay workers during the time they are being tested.

Many Hanford workers already are eligible for paid time off to get themselves or family members vaccinated against COVID-19.

Workers who are telecommuting full time and are not vaccinated will not be required to be tested unless they must report to an on-site location.

Currently all Hanford employees are required to wear face coverings indoors, with few exceptions, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for all people in counties with substantial or high levels of COVID-19 cases.

All counties in Washington state now have high levels of COVID cases.

If Benton and Franklin county levels of COVID-19 cases drop to a level considered moderate by the CDC, unvaccinated workers are expected to continue to be required to wear face masks.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has issued orders for state employees, most health care workers, and school and higher education staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18.

There is no testing option for those workers but most will be allowed to apply for a medical or religious exemption.

This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 12:00 PM.