tesla inc must not reopen its vehicle factory in the san francisco bay area as local lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus remain in effect the local county health department saidthe comments came after teslas chief executive elon musk told employees that limited production would restart at the factory in fremont teslas only us vehicle factory on friday afternooncalifornia governor gavin newsom said that manufacturers in the state would be allowed to reopen but alameda county where the factory is located is scheduled to remain shut until the end of maya spokeswoman for the alameda county public health department in a statement referred to the countys coronavirus lockdown order that only permits essential businesses to reopentesla has been informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not reopen the spokeswoman saidearlier on friday erica pan a health officer for the county said the department has had many discussions with the company and recommended that tesla wait at least another week to monitor infection rates and discuss safe ways to resume productionpan speaking during a virtual townhall with the mayor of the city of alameda called tesla a very hot topictesla did not immediately respond to a request for commentvehicle manufacturing operations are not allowed to operate regularly according to the alameda county ordermusk has been bluntly criticizing the lockdown and stayathome orders calling them a serious risk to us business and tagging them unconstitutional saying they would not hold up before the us supreme court if challengedtesla in an internal mail seen by reuters had said that starting friday limited operation would resume at the fremont factory with 30 of normal headcount per shiftour gigafactories in nevada and new york have also begun limited operations as approved by their respective states the mail saidhowever musk said employees who feel uncomfortable coming back to work were not obligated to do sotesla had sparred with officials in california in march over whether it had to halt production at the fremont factory under lockdown orders that allowed only essential businesses to continue to operate it ended the standoff in midmarch and said it would suspend productionthe lockdown order was imposed to curb the spread of covid19 which has infected over 38 million people globally