Elon Musk and his Shanghai Gigafactory have COVID

Tesla CEO, Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to declare that he has supposedly contracted COVID-19, again. 

Covid-19 is the virus of Theseus.

How many gene changes before it’s not Covid-19 anymore?

I supposedly have it again (sigh), but almost no symptoms.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 28, 2022

Musk's unhappiness with COVID is well known. In the early days of the pandemic, Musk had called the panic associated with the virus "dumb" and later went ahead to defy the U.S. government guidelines to reopen the Tesla plant in California. The move saw over 400 factory workers testing positive for the virus, The New York Times had reported last March. 

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Positive and Negative

Back in November of 2020, Musk had a hard time figuring out if he had contracted the virus. 

Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2020

Musk had later written that he had requested a PCR test for a conclusive result but never revealed the final result. His tweet earlier today likely confirms that he had contracted the virus back then and has done so once again now. 

Musk had also predicted that the U.S. would see zero cases of COVID last April, Newsweek reported after the country saw two peaks, one in August and a more recent one in January this year. 

COVID in Shanghai

What Musk clearly did not predict was the resurfacing of COVID in China. Now, the biggest virus hotspot in the Asian country, the city of Shanghai has now been locked down to conduct mass testing to contain the virus spread. 

According to a Bloomberg report, the lockdown is being carried out in two phases, the first of which will be is to lockdown half of Shanghai city where the China Giga factory halts production for four days. Workers are likely to return to work on April 1st and the lockdown moves into phase two, the other half of Shanghai city. 

Tesla cars built in the Shanghai factory not only serve local market demand but are also exported to Europe and other countries in Asia. Last month alone, the facility produced over 56,000 cars more than half of which were exported. 

While the company spokesperson has confirmed that Tesla will implement the local government's instructions to curb the spread of the infection, the company will be keen to resume production at the earliest. 

Like the rest of us, Musk's tryst with COVID continues.....