Tesla tries to assure workers there's no big virus outbreak

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is trying to assure its 55,000 employees that there hasn't been a big coronavirus outbreak at company facilities worldwide, despite a report by an electric vehicle industry website that over 130 Tesla employees or contractors have tested positive.

In an email to workers Wednesday night, the company said that since January it has had fewer than 10 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 that were transmitted in the workplace.

But the email from Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s vice president of environmental, safety and health, also confirmed reports that Tesla is looking into more than 130 positive tests among employees, including those who contracted the virus outside of Tesla facilities. She said less than 0.25% of employees worldwide have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which equals just over 137 workers.

Her message came in response to a report by Electrek.co that over 130 Tesla employees or contractors have tested positive, and hundreds more are waiting for test results. The website said it based the report on internal company data.

Shelby wrote that the story referred to data “that was in the process of being validated” and included employees worldwide who may have been infected but never entered a Tesla site, or were infected at home while Tesla's operations were shut down earlier in the year. A Tesla spokesman would not comment on the report or the email, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

“Nearly all — more than 99.99% — of these occurrences were not cases of virus transmitted at work,” Shelby wrote in the email. “Most of the positive cases resulted from an individual living with or traveling with someone with COVID-19 and have returned to work after recovering from home.”

Shelby wrote that Tesla doesn't have any employees in serious condition anywhere in...