Amazon: 20,000 US employees tested positive for Covid-19 in last half a year
03 October, 2020
Nearly 20,000 of Amazon’s employees working in the united states have tested positive for coronavirus within the last six months, in line with the company.
“We have done an intensive analysis of data on all 1,372,000 Amazon and Whole Foods Market front-line employees across the US employed anytime from March 1 to September 19, 2020,” the retailer said in a weblog post on Thursday. “In reality, 19,816 employees have tested positive or been presumed positive for Covid-19 - 42 % less than the expected number.”
The disclosure from the company comes as the quantity of coronavirus cases rises in the US. As of Friday, the quantity of infections in the united states reached a lot more than 7.4 million with an increase of than 200,000 deaths, according to Worldometer.
Amazon has been assembling a team consisting research scientists and programme managers to procurement experts and software engineers to give attention to testing because the outbreak of the pandemic in March.
In addition, it built a “world-class” laboratory team by hiring a large number of lab technicians to carry out testing.
“We're investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this initiative, but testing is merely among the things we're doing to keep our front-line employees safe. We offer our employees comprehensive medical health insurance from their first day face to face and paid time off to any employee who has to be quarantined or receive treatment.”
The business also said it is currently conducting a large number of tests a day and is planning to crank up to 50,000 tests a day across 650 sites by November. It is also taking other measures like implementation of staggered break times along with eliminating stand-up meetings during shifts, among other things, to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
"We've made a decision to publicly share the Covid-19 infection rates among Amazon front-line employees - something few if any companies no other major retailers have done. We hope other large companies may also release their detailed learnings and case rates because doing so will help all of us.”
Amazon has seen its business boom after stay-at-home directives to contain Covid-19 prompted people to look online. Its shares have surged almost 70 per cent this season, lifting its market value to $1.56 trillion.
To meet the growing demand, the business has been on a hiring spree.
Last month, Amazon said it really is adding 10,000 new long term jobs and 20,000 seasonal positions in the united kingdom this year.
Amazon's net income increased 100 per cent year-on-year to $5.2 billion in the next quarter due to more sales.
Source: www.thenational.ae