By Hyunjoo Jin

San Francisco (Reuters). Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket firm has reported 132 COVID-19 incidents at its California headquarters. This is a quarter of all cases found in Los Angeles County non-residential areas, according to county records.

This is the second case in which a significant number of COVID-19-related cases has been reported by Musk. Tesla, the electric car manufacturer (NASDAQ) Inc has reported 440 cases in Fremont, Northern California between May and December 2020 according to Alameda County data retrieved from Plainsite legal information site.

SpaceX informed employees Monday that the company had received 132 COVID cases since September. It said this was because “several employees working in the same area” contracted the disease at an event not related to work.

“It does not mean that 132 Hawthorne employees have contracted COVID in the workplace today,” the statement said. It was speaking about the Los Angeles area city where SpaceX is headquartered.

SpaceX responded to a request for comments by sharing an email from its internal network.

Los Angeles County stated that there were 496 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in locations other than residences. These include places such as work, restaurants, grocery stores and worship centers. SpaceX had the most cases, followed closely by FedEx Corp’s Los Angeles branch with 85.

SpaceX is the largest player in the rapidly growing constellation of commercial rocket ventures. SpaceX has launched many cargo payloads and astronauts into the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA.

Musk sued Alameda county in May 2020 after he reopened Fremont’s Tesla factory, in violation of lockdown measures by the county to limit the spread coronavirus.