Tesla Gigafactory to reopen May 4th

Tesla's board of directors learned late Thursday the Gigafactory in Sparks is scheduled to reopen May 4, said President and CEO of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, Mike Kazmierski.

Some of the new guidelines put in place to keep workers safe and to adhear to the safety regulations of organizations like OSHA include:

Masks will be required in some workstations to supplement social distancing protocols and anyone may use face coverings voluntarily. Employees will also have access to gloves in PPE vending machines for normal work needs and disposable gloves will be available across production areas in the cafe.

Employees will be instructed to work within social distancing protocols and teams are encouraged to take additional breaks to stagger work in order to both comply with social distancing protocols and to complete frequent multi-day disinfecting of high-touch work stations.

Tesla will use temperature screening on workers coming into the factory as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Gigafactory temperature takers will use an AOJ-20F Infrared Thermometer, which is a medical non-contact thermometer to accomplish this task. If an employee's temperature measures greater than 100.4 he or she will be asked to return home.

If there is a confirmed COVID-19 case at Tesla, the Company's protocol is to interview the individual, investigate their whereabouts and speak with their managers to determine the best of their ability who had contact with the individual at work. Tesla representatives will speak with all individuals who had direct and extended contact, and those individuals will be asked to self-quarantine to watch for symptoms.

Tesla's janitorial team is disinfecting door handles and push bars before and after shift changes, as well as every hour at the main facility entrances. When employees enter the building, hand sanitizer and surface sanitizer wipes are provided for employees. There are also surface sanitizer wipes for additional elective use throughout the facility.

Transportation shuttles are capped at 30 percent of maximum capacity so employees are able to sit greater than six feet apart from one another.

For workstations and tasks with employees less than six feet apart, Tesla engineering teams have built workstation partitions to protect operators from COVID-19. Where barriers couldn't be erected quickly, workstations were de-staffed and production line outputs reduced or paused.

Additionally, there is now only online ordering for Cafe food services, partitions have been installed at IT helpdesks, and small conference rooms are closed.