Elon Musk's SpaceX Has the Largest Covid Outbreak in L.A. County
SpaceX, the rocket and space tech company started by Tesla (TSLA) - Get Tesla Inc Report founder Elon Musk, has the worst outbreak of Covid-19 in Los Angeles County.
At least 132 staffers at the companies rocket factory in Hawthorne have tested positive this month in an active outbreak, according to Los Angeles County Department of Public Health data.
The SpaceX outbreak is the worst active outbreak in a non-residential setting with three or more laboratory-confirmed Covid cases in Los Angeles Country, according to the data.
The next closes outbreak is 85 confirmed staff infected at FedEx's facility at the Los Angeles Airport.
The current outbreak comes during a busy month for the company, with had nearly 6,000 employees working at the Hawthorne factory as of May, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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Last year in March near the start of the pandemic, a SpaceX employee who traveled abroad and an onsite healthcare provider tested positive for coronavirus, leading to an outbreak among at least 12 employees.
Musk and Covid
In March 2020, Musk tweeted that the "coronavirus panic is dumb."
Later that month, Musk predicted that the U.S. wouldn't have any new cases by the end of April 2020.
Musk even kept Tesla's Bay Area Tesla auto plant open last year in open defiance of statewide lockdown orders before finally capitulating and closing the facility.
Meanwhile SpaceX reportedly reached a $100 billion valuation in October following a share sale by current investors.
