Leaked email reveals 2 Tesla employees have tested positive for COVID-19 - Business Insider - Business Insider

Two Tesla employees have tested positive for COVID-19, according to an internal email sent on Thursday.
The employees have been working from home for about two weeks and didn't show symptoms while in the office, the electric-car maker said.
Tesla has not previously disclosed any instances in which employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Two Tesla employees have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Laurie Shelby, the head of Tesla's environmental, health, and safety department, said in an email to employees on Thursday. Business Insider viewed a photo of the email.

The employees have been working from home for almost two weeks and did not show symptoms while working at their office, Shelby said. The email did not specify at which facility the employees worked at or their roles.

Thursday's email marks the first time Tesla has said one of its employees has tested positive for COVID-19. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"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," Shelby said in the email. "Our team is prepared and all appropriate steps were taken based on the recommended government guidelines."

The employees are in quarantine at their homes and their coworkers, who have also been working from home for around two weeks, were quickly told of their diagnoses, Shelby said.

"In both cases, interactions with the individuals had a low likelihood of transmission based on the minimal staff onsite and social distancing measures we took earlier this month," Shelby said.

Shelby did not specify the exact day the employees were told of their test results, but suggested it happened on Wednesday or Thursday.

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told employees they don't have to come to work if they're sick or worried about the coronavirus. In a follow-up email, Valerie Workman, the company's head of human resources in North America, said those who stay home and can't work remotely must use personal time off (PTO) to get paid.

Workman's email came before Tesla stopped production indefinitely at its car factory in California and its solar roof-tile factory in Buffalo on Monday. Employees from those facilities who can't work from home were placed on paid leave, though Musk said Wednesday that the Buffalo plant will reopen to make ventilators "as soon as humanly possible." On Monday, Musk said he had bought 1,255 ventilators from China and sent them to California, a move California Gov. Gavin Newsom called "heroic."

Earlier this year, the coronavirus forced Tesla to briefly close its factory in Shanghai and its stores throughout mainland China. The virus has also disrupted Tesla's supply chain, leading the company to install old hardware for Autopilot, its advanced driver-assistance system, in China-made Model 3 sedans.

Tesla warned in its most recent annual report that a health epidemic like the coronavirus could have a negative financial impact on the company, though Morgan Stanley said in a March 19 research note that it was confident Tesla has the financial resources to handle the fallout from the coronavirus after discussions with the company.

The coronavirus has been found in at least 175 countries and territories, infecting more than 487,000 people and killing over 22,000. There have been more than 69,000 confirmed cases in the US, including at least 1,046 reported deaths. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic.

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