SpaceX COVID-19 outbreak reported with 132 confirmed cases
HAWTHORNE, Calif. - The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is reporting a COVID-19 outbreak at the SpaceX Corporate Headquarters facility in Hawthorne, where 132 active cases have been confirmed.
The data released by the health department on Monday tracks current COVID-19 outbreaks in the county. This is the second outbreak reported at the rocket facility. Back in March 2020, 12 employees at the same facility had to be sent home after two confirmed COVID-19 cases at the location.
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SpaceX Headquarters, located at 1 Rocket Road in Hawthorne, has approximately 6,500 employees. The location is the main hub for Elon Musk's rocket factory, where the company's main design, manufacturing, research and engineering is done, according to the company's website.
SpaceX released the following statement to FOX 11 on Tuesday morning:
"The term ‘outbreak’ is used by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) any time a facility has three or more cases in a 14-day period. During an outbreak, LACDPH requires all cases to be reported to them until the facility goes 14 days without reporting three or more positive COVID cases. In September, several employees who work in the same area contracted COVID outside of work at a non-work-related event. Because SpaceX has worked diligently to ensure testing is available to all employees, and have encouraged employees to get tested at work, these employees received COVID tests in Hawthorne, which triggered SpaceX to report these positive cases to LACDPH.
Of the 132 reported ‘outbreak’ cases, only one case was suspected to have occurred at work. 132 is also the aggregate number of cases reported since the September case described above, and that number includes employees who may have been on vacation for several weeks, returned to work and received a COVID test at SpaceX that turned out positive. Again, it does not mean 132 employees in Hawthorne have COVID today or contracted it in the workplace.
We will continue to work very hard to keep employees safe in the workplace. As always, the latest COVID stats are accessible to all employees on confluence."
On Sunday, Los Angeles County logged its third consecutive day with more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases.
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Sunday's numbers brought the county's cumulative totals to 1,563,879 cases and 27,441 fatalities since the pandemic began, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
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