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- A worker at Panasonic's joint factory with Tesla tested positive for the coronavirus, The Verge reports.
- The Buffalo, New York solar-manufacturing line will be shut down for longer than expected, Panasonic said in an email obtained by the website.
- Tesla has also shuttered operations in Nevada and California as four employees have now fallen ill.
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A worker at Tesla and Panasonic's joint solar panel factory in upstate New York was confirmed to have the coronavirus, The Verge's Sean O'Kane reported Wednesday citing an email to employees.
The Panasonic-employed person is the fourth worker at a Tesla site to test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus which has no infected more than 216,000 Americans. So far, one worker in Nevada and two office workers in Palo Alto have also tested positive.
According to the email obtained by The Verge, the affected employee was last in the office after March 17. Panasonic said it had traced all the affected person's contacts and performed a thorough cleaning of their work station.
A Panasonic spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment, but confirmed to The Verge that the two-week factory shutdown begun on March 23 will be extended. Musk previously said the factory will "reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible."
Tesla's joint venture with Panasonic is planned to end in May, the companies said in February, with Panasonic completely exiting the operation by September. Tesla has said it's working to "identify and hire" some of the 375 laid off workers.
The factory shutdowns in Buffalo, we well as Reno, Nevada and Fremont California, come after chief executive Elon Musk seemed to downplay the severity of the pandemic. In addition to tweeting that the panicked reaction to the virus was "dumb," he also tweeted false information that kids "are essentially immune" to the disease.
In closing its factories, Tesla told investors that it had plenty of cash on hand to weather the shutdown.
"Our cash position at the end of Q4 2019 was $6.3B before our recent $2.3B capital raise," the company said. "We believe this level of liquidity is sufficient to successfully navigate an extended period of uncertainty. At the end of Q4 2019, we had available credit lines worth approximately $3B including working capital lines for all regions as well as financing for the expansion of our Shanghai factory."
Tesla is expected to report its first-quarter vehicle sales for the period ending March 31 soon.
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See Also:
- Boeing announces voluntary layoffs to cut costs as coronavirus leaves it in 'uncharted waters'
- Royal Caribbean's CEO won't be paid until September and other executives are taking 25% pay cuts as the coronavirus ravages the cruise industry
- Tesla went from high fives at an all-hands meeting to shutting down its factories — here's how it came to accept the coronavirus
