Tesla factory in California had 440 COVID-19 cases last year

California’s Alameda County has reported that Tesla’s Fremont factory has had at least 440 COVID-19 cases since last May.

You may remember this factory being in the news last year for Tesla opening it without approval from the county, and I guess these numbers illustrate that it should have remained closed.

Engadget reports that this amount of people is 4.5 percent of the factory’s total 10,000 people workforce.

New! From the Alameda County Department of Public Health, one year after our initial request, a single table summarizing how many COVID-19 reports the Department received from the $TSLA Fremont factory.

Note, it only started keeping track in May and it stops in December 2020. pic.twitter.com/MOnzQwCRFS

— PlainSite (@PlainSite) March 13, 2021

It’s unclear if this led to more cases being spread out of the factory, but the fact that there were 125 cases in December alone is a little concerning. That said, when you look at other factories and warehouses around the world, not many of them handled COVID perfectly. For instance, there were recently over 400 COVID cases at an Amazon warehouse in Brampton, Ontario. 

Hopefully, as the vaccines get the pandemic under control, these case numbers in big workspaces go down, and these large employers can learn from this year to keep their workers safe in the future.

Source: Engadget