SpaceX, the rocket company owned by Elon Musk, reported 132 COVID-19 infections at its California headquarters, accounting for over a fifth of all cases in non-residential sites in Los Angeles County, county data showed.
SpaceX indicated in a statement to staff that the outbreak began in September when multiple employees who work in the same location caught the virus while attending a non-work-related event.
According to the memo, which was published Tuesday by a SpaceX official, only one of the 132 employees is suspected of catching the virus on the job.
This is the second time that a substantial number of COVID-19 cases has been detected at a firm led by Musk. Tesla Inc recorded 440 cases between May and December 2020 at its Fremont, California, facility, according to Alameda County statistics obtained by legal information website Plainsite.
COVID-19 cases totaling 496 have been confirmed in non-residential settings such as workplaces, restaurants and retail establishments, and places of worship, Los Angeles County officials said, without specifying the time span for those cases.
County health authorities revealed the statistics Monday, emphasizing that the figures are dynamic and likely to change.
The positive COVID-19 cases is just a small portion of the rocket factory's workforce: there are roughly 6,000 personnel working at the company's Space Exploration Technologies headquarters in Hawthorne, situated near the Los Angeles International Airport, the Los Angeles Times said.
The cases come in the wake of a busy period for the business, which has successfully launched four Falcon 9 rockets since Dec. 9, including an early Tuesday cargo supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
SpaceX is the most established company in the growing commercial rocket sector. It has already sent multiple cargo payloads and people to the ISS on behalf of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department requires all employees, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a face mask when working indoors, except when eating, drinking, or alone in a room.
Musk sued Alameda County in May of last year as he reopened the Tesla factory in Fremont, ignoring the county's lockdown steps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the United States is dealing with a new surge as the highly-contagious omicron variant spreads.
According to data published by Johns Hopkins University, daily coronavirus infections in the U.S. reached their highest level since September, with about 254,000 cases reported Monday.
