NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The latest numbers for Hampton Roads' largest private employer are concerning.
There were five new coronavirus cases reported Monday at Newport News Shipbuilding. That's on top of five on July 18, 13 on July 17, 14 on July 16, 15 on July 15, 18 on July 14, and 16 on July 13.
That's 86 cases in one week.
The shipyard has had a total of 296 cases since the pandemic started and that accounts for 24.5 percent of the entire City of Newport News' total number of 1,206 cases.
The company has taken numerous aggressive steps. They include enhanced screenings for all workers as they enter the shipyard's five main gates as well as performing deep sanitizing of every workspace and common area, plus requiring face masks and social distancing, and promoting teleworking for "thousands" of the company's more than 25,000-member workforce.
Newport News Shipbuilding President Jennifer Boykin continues to pledge transparency, providing daily updates on the case numbers, on Facebook, and on the company's website.
In a statement to 13 News Now on Monday, she said: "The safety of our shipbuilders is and remains our highest priority as cases of coronavirus continue to rise across our region. Based on the trends we are seeing in our community, our cases likely will continue to grow. These numbers are a sobering reminder that what happens outside our gates impacts what happens inside them. That’s why we will continue to do everything we can to help limit the spread of COVID-19. Safety precautions that were put in place months ago remain in place to minimize the risk to our employees at Newport News Shipbuilding. We are working on additional actions to combat the increase to include additional deep cleaning, and continue to stress the importance of social distancing and wearing a mask as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We will continue regularly monitoring CDC guidance and changing conditions, and will adjust business operations accordingly as we have been doing on an ongoing basis."
Despite it all, though, the work goes on.
Newport News Shipbuilding has constructed more than 800 ships since 1886. The work performed here is crucial to national defense and has been declared mission-essential during this national emergency.
It is the world's only maker of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers for the Navy and it is one of only two shipyards in the nation which build nuclear-powered attack submarines.