SpaceX Reports Over 130 Employee Cases Of COVID-19, Largest Workplace Outbreak In LA County
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/AP) - SpaceX, the aerospace manufacturer based out of Hawthorne, has been the center of many news stories over recent weeks after a series of successful launches. Most recently on December 18, they had launched of a group broadband satellites out of Lompoc.
However, they made headlines once again on Monday for a very different reason - the largest COVID-19 workplace outbreak in Los Angeles County.
With 132 positive cases reported, they nearly double the next closest workplace in terms of confirmed cases, as FedEx - LAX has reported 85.
According to The Los Angeles Times, there are nearly 6,000 employees that work on the SpaceX campus in Hawthorne, with 5,972 employees as of May.
This news comes at the same time that it was announced by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that the Omicron variant has officially overtaken the Delta variant as the most prevalent version of COVID-19 in the United States.
Over 73% of cases reported in the U.S. over the last week were indicated to be Omicron. The report also showed that over 650,000 cases of Omicron infection occurred over the last week, and 90% of positive cases in New York proved to be the newly dominant variant.
While it isn't hasn't quite yet taken over the West Coast, Omicron is dominant in the South, Central Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and the New York regions of the United States.
Los Angeles County considers an outbreak three or more cases linked by a single location. According to the report, there are now 37 different workplace outbreaks in the county.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)