At Elon Musk's Tesla solar panel factory in Buffalo, NY, a worker has tested positive for COVID-19, according to an employee at the factory who spoke to The Verge on the condition of anonymity. The plant was re-opened on May 19.
It's the fourth known Tesla employee to test positive for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus but the first since the company reopened its US factories in May. One employee from Panasonic, which shares space with Tesla at its New York and Nevada factories, also tested positive back in March before the shutdowns.
Tesla quietly reopened the New York facility on May 19th after the state gave the region the green light, according to a new letter to local officials first reported on Friday by Buffalo Business First. But the company is not back at full production capacity and won't be for a while. In fact, Tesla told those officials that it furloughed 984 "full-time Tesla independent contract workers" in April because of the shutdown, and will move forward with just under 500 full-time employees there for the time being.
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Tesla worker tests positive for COVID-19 after New York factory reopens
[theverge.com, Sean O'Kane, Jun 2, 2020, 5:04pm EDT]
Also, as Panasonic's time is about to come to an end at the NY factory, its solar division has held information sessions for employees who want to relocate to the Gigafactory in Nevada https://t.co/Vc9Lo9FwQ0
— Sean O'Kane (@sokane1) June 2, 2020
Also new in here: Tesla has given its employees in Fremont, California a letter to show to law enforcement if they are stopped for violating the protest-related curfew https://t.co/Vc9Lo9FwQ0
— Sean O'Kane (@sokane1) June 2, 2020
