SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration venture, has reported 132 COVID-19 cases at their headquarters in California, as per Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) data. The number is more than a quarter of the total number of recent reported workplace cases reported in the county (496). 

An internal email to its Hawthorne employees on Monday, SpaceX said that the 132 cases had been reported since September. It adds that at the time “several employees who work in the same area contracted COVID outside of work at a non-work-related event.”

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“The number includes employees who may have been on vacation for several weeks, returned to work and received a COVID test at SpaceX that turned out positive. Again, it does not mean 132 employees in Hawthorne have COVID today or contracted it in the workplace.” the email reads. 

Elon Musk-led Tesla had reported 440 cases at its factory in Fremont in Northern California from May to December 2020, according to Alameda County data obtained by legal information website Plainsite.

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As per the LACDPH, any cluster of three or more laboratory-confirmed positive tests at a facility within a two-week span classifies as an active outbreak. In simple terms, it means that COVID-19 is rapidly spreading in the area. 

A total of 496 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in nonresidential locations such as workplaces, food and retail stores, and places of worship, Los Angeles County said.

SpaceX posted the highest number of cases in the county, followed by FedEx Corp’s (FDX.N) Los Angeles office with 85 cases.

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After reopening the Tesla factory in Fremont by defying that county’s lockdown measures in May 2020, Musk had sued the Alameda County. 

“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me,” Musk tweeted on May 11, 2020.