Welcome to the Info TEST server!

Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Sections
NRAO Coronavirus COVID-19 Response > news > NRAO/GBO update - Tuesday Sep 15th

NRAO/GBO update - Tuesday Sep 15th

Our operations are ongoing. The North American NRAO/GBO instruments and IT systems are online, performing well. In Chile, the JAO is beginning a low—level start of the Santiago offices, and planning the OSF next steps. Infections rates in the cities/regions our sites are located in remain moderate, and continue to fluctuate.

An update on a situation I reported last week – the COVID-19 contamination of a NRAO/GBO department. I am pleased to report that even though we did have an asymptomatic infected employee onsite for two days, no other employees in the same working area were infected. As per procedure, the affected work space was isolated for 7 days and common contact surfaces were cleaned, and everybody went home on quarantine for 14 days (finishing tomorrow), and had two COVID tests.  We remain concerned about our sick colleague and his family, but relieved that the situation has been contained. This is a great indication that the processes and procedures we have put in place to minimize the risks of infection in the workplace (masks, monitoring air handling, cleaning working surfaces) work. Many thanks to the management and staff involved in this case for acting promptly to limit exposure for everyone. During the past week, a teleworking employee at a different site began a quarantine cycle after a close family member tested positive.  More interactions with COVID can be expected.  

A general point about communicating key details about NRAO/GBO COVID situations: we are trying to find the right balance between giving people enough information so they can make good decisions in their personal/professional lives, and respecting the medical/privacy rights of everybody involved. I relay only high level details in these notes; department heads and supervisors will provide more detail in situations where their depts. are involved; and obviously, anyone directly traced or impacted (e.g. coworkers in the same HVAC or contact areas) receives a lot of detailed information to assess their risk. The Safety Team and management are always looking for lessons learned in these events that might apply to other areas of the Observatories.

As always, physical distancing, the use of masks at all times in our sites, and good personal hygiene remain important.  Please remain vigilant and let us know of any confirmed or suspected exposures to allow us to remain COVID resistant in our workplace. If you have contact with someone who subsequently gets sick and/or tests positive –let us know immediately. If one of your close contacts (e.g. family members) learns they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, talk to HR and/or Safety, and we will help you diagnose what needs to be done. As we get into cold & flu season, there are going to be many hard-to-interpret situations with direct or indirect connections back to the workplace. I strongly suggest you and your close family members get your flu shots this season. 

Changing topic:  it now appears unlikely that Congress will pass the FY2021 budget for NSF before the end of the year, so at the end of this month we anticipate the federal government installing a Continuing Resolution (CR) on the budget. The CR will probably run past the election and into early/mid December. There will be growing media discussion of this issue in coming weeks.  We have dealt with CRs in past years, and now have set-aside resources to deal with them, so I am not anticipating any issues for NRAO/GBO funding anytime this year or early next year. 

I hope you and your families continue to stay safe and well. If you need information or support, please contact your supervisor, Dept Head, ESS or me.  The website containing all our COVID support information is: https://info.nrao.edu/covid-19.

Tony Beasley