E-commerce giant Amazon says it has set up its own laboratory to test its American employees for coronavirus amid growing concerns about their health. The group, which employed 750,000 people at the start of the year worldwide before increasing its workforce to meet the surge in demand, said it had strengthened its means to carry out screenings.
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Negative cases "could re-enter the economy with confidence"
"Amazon employees with different skills (scientific researchers, program managers, procurement specialists, IT engineers) have put their daily jobs on hold to join a team dedicated to this initiative," the group said in a blog post Thursday evening. "We have started to assemble the equipment necessary to build our first laboratory and we hope soon to start testing a small number of our employees in direct contact with the public," he added.
Amazon said it made the decision because of a shortage of tests to confirm infections and fear that asymptomatic workers would spread the disease. "If everyone, including people without symptoms, could be tested regularly, it would make a huge difference in how we fight this virus," said Amazon.
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"Those who test positive could be quarantined and taken care of, and all those who test negative could re-enter the economy with confidence," said the Seattle giant.
Positive cases already identified
Cases of covid-19 positive employees have been identified in several Amazon warehouses. In response, group employees organized demonstrations and walkouts to demand increased security.
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Amazon started measuring employee temperatures and distributing masks to them last week. Temperature controls could be extended to the entire Amazon network in the United States and Europe, including the supermarket chain Whole Foods Market.
In March, the group led by Jeff Bezos said it wanted to employ 100,000 people and invest $ 350 million to help its employees and partners during the pandemic.