NASA requires staff to telecommute at Alabama center after employee tests positive for coronavirus

NASA has ordered employees at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to telework after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus.

“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is moving into Stage 3 of our agency response framework, with mandatory telework effective immediately and until further notice,” Center Director Jody Singer said in a statement Friday.

The US space agency is working to identify and notify anyone who had “significant contact” with the infected employee at the center in Huntsville, Alabama, according to the statement.

The Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, where an employee tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, is under Stage 3 as well.

NASA has issued new travel guidelines for staff due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Facilities under Stage 3 have suspended travel for employees except for “mission essential work” and “protection of life or property.” Staff are required to telecommute, food service at the facilities is take-out only, and health clinics are open to support mission-essential personnel only, according to NASA.

Those under Stage 2 guidelines, which includes all NASA facilities besides the Huntsville and Mountain View centers, allows for travel to or from locations “when physical presence is required.”

Employees are encouraged to telework, large, in-person meetings are postponed or canceled, and visitors are allowed only if they are mission-essential and approved, according to NASA.

For countries with a CDC threat level of 3 and above, no travel will be authorized without vetting by agency leadership.