Tesla factory workers test positive for coronavirus – report

Two Tesla employees have reportedly tested positive for coronavirus, according to a leaked email obtained by US media outlets.

The Reuters news agency and the Business Insider website said Tesla did not disclose which facility or which site the employees were based at, but an email communication to staff said the workers were “quarantined and recovering well”.

Employees who had been working alongside the ill staff had also been working from home for “nearly two weeks” and had been “immediately notified to quarantine at home and watch for symptoms”.

The Tesla email claimed there was “a low likelihood of transmission based on the minimal staff onsite and social distancing measures” the company had in place.

“I feel this is important to share with everyone at Tesla not to cause stress or panic but so you hear this information directly from Tesla,” wrote Laurie Shelby, head of Tesla’s environmental and safety department, in the company-wide email.

The news follows Tesla’s decision to temporarily suspend production at its San Francisco Bay Area car factory and its New York solar roof tile factory.

“Non-essential staff, including office workers, had already been asked to work from home about a week prior,” the Reuters news agency reported.

Coronavirus infections have also been reported at other US car factories.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) said in a letter to union members this week that two workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) – one in Indiana and one in Michigan – died after contracting the coronavirus.

MORE: Everything Tesla
MORE: Coronavirus news