TSLA Tesla Inc

By Robert Wall 

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has repeatedly played down the risk of the coronavirus since early in the pandemic, says he tested both positive and negative for Covid-19 on Wednesday and raised questions about the validity of such testing more broadly.

Mr. Musk, on Twitter, said he was experiencing cold-like symptoms and, when taking four of the same tests administered on the same machine, had two results come back positive and two negative.

"Something extremely bogus is going on," he said.

The symptoms he was experiencing, he said, were "nothing unusual so far."

In March, Mr. Musk predicted there would likely be close to zero new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. by the end of April. In March, the outspoken CEO said "my guess is that the panic will cause more harm than the virus, if that hasn't happened already,"

His latest tweets came as positive U.S. Covid-19 tests reached a new record. On Wednesday, Alameda County, near San Francisco--where Tesla's lone U.S. car factory is based--warned of rising coronavirus cases and potential new restrictions to combat the disease. County health officials earlier this year ordered Tesla to temporarily close the car plant.

On an earnings call in April, with the U.S. plant shut, Mr. Musk railed against local shelter-in-place restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.

"Give people back their goddamn freedom," he said.

The four Covid-19 results Mr. Musk said he received Wednesday came from rapid-response tests. He said he was taking a more thorough a PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, test--typically involving a nasal or throat swab--at a separate laboratory and was expecting to get results in about 24 hours.

The pandemic at one point threatened to derail Mr. Musk's plan to boost Tesla deliveries by about 36% this year with the closure of the plant. Mr. Musk fought to reopen the factory and Tesla last month said its goal of delivering more than 500,000 vehicles this year could still be attainable. The company is on track to post its first full-year of profit in 2020 in spite of the pandemic, according to analyst estimates.

Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 13, 2020 02:30 ET (07:30 GMT)

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