NRAO/GBO update - Thursday July 2nd
We are at the end of the first month of our return to full operations. The North American NRAO/GBO instruments remain operational, with great science being produced. IT systems are good. In Chile, the Office of Chilean affairs and our NRAO ISMs in the Joint ALMA Observatory remain in IDOS; the number of daily new infections in Chile is declining, which is great news. The JAO continues to explore options for returning ALMA to observing.
There are no reports of NRAO or GBO staff receiving medical care for COVID-19, but testing of employees and their families is occurring when illness is encountered. I’d like to thank everyone for taking the self-diagnosis and medical testing seriously, and keeping us posted. The alarming increases in the number of daily new infections seen in the past week or two nationally suggests we’re in for a long battle. Your personal responsibilities are the same as they were in March/April – physical distancing; wearing masks; hand washing/sanitizing; avoiding crowds and enclosed spaces; monitoring contacts. Together we’ve developed good plans for avoiding infection in the workplace, and we’re using them effectively; similar planning to support the other elements of your lives is important. We all need answers to questions like: Do you know the typical COVID symptoms? Where to go to be tested if you feel ill? Are you prepared for quarantining yourself, or someone in your family, or your whole family, if infection occurs? When is it safe to return to work or other activities outside the home after an infection? If you need more information regarding the disease (both related to work, and for these home topics) please don’t hesitate to contact ESS, or see our COVID-19 webpage. Happy to help if we can.
At this point I am confident the Observatories can handle a contamination event, identify/quarantine affected individuals, clean and reboot the facilities, and keep the NA telescopes on line. Thanks to all the NRAO and GBO supervisors who coordinated the return of people to the facilities over the past few weeks.. it went really well. And as always, many thanks to our facility safety support and ESS teams, who have been monitoring temperatures and helping people during the return, and the IT teams that have kept us all connected and productive.
The discussion about race in America is continuing, and many staff members have participating. I urge you all to attend "Understanding #BlackLivesMatter" with Dr. La TaSha Levy next week, Tuesday, July 7th 1-2:30pm EDT.
Audio-only: +1 646 876 9923, Meeting ID: 490 365 0812
Any staff member with questions, concerns or comments please contact your supervisor, Department Head, Site Director, or me. The website containing all our COVID support information is: https://info.nrao.edu/covid-19 My next update will be July 13th.
Have a good July 4th weekend, and stay safe.
Tony Beasley
