Amazon, the largest online shopping site, has released a detailed report on employees affected by the coronavirus. For the first time, the multinational company has disclosed that the pandemic has hit around 19,000 employees. It is about 1.44 percent of the population with the virus.
Amazon has counted 19,816 of its employees have Covid-19. This number is for presumed or confirmed cases of the virus from March 1 to September 19. These are cases from its 1.37 million employees working at Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market all over the United States.
The data was released after months of pressure from politicians, labor groups, and regulators. In the early weeks of the pandemic, Amazon employees working at the company warehouse were worried that their employer was not doing its best to protect them from the virus.
The workers even called the management to shut down some facilities as employees are calling in sick. Because Amazon could not immediately produce reports, employees decided to compile their data, which included infected employees according to notifications for new cases. This data covered all of Amazon’s warehouses and facilities in the country.
In a blog post released by Amazon Thursday, the number of infected personnel they released would be “more powerful” should other companies also provide similar information. It also noted that information availability would help them benchmark their efforts and progress plus share practices for all businesses and industries affected by the coronavirus.
Reports say that there is around eight this year regarding any employee deaths, but the company did not update it when it announced the information.
Meanwhile, Walmart said that less than 1 percent of their 1.5 million employees had coronavirus. It was a statement released by the company in April and has not released any updated report.
Amazon further released updates regarding how it is handling coronavirus testing to its front-line employees. The company claimed that tests are done daily, and they are planning to increase testing to 50,000 a day from its more than 600 warehouses and facilities this coming month.
Amazon previously told CNBC that it plans to test its front-line workers every two weeks using nasal swabs. It also said that it would contribute its second-quarter profits of around $4 billion to Covid-19 response and spend about $1 billion on virus testing.
The total of infected employees did not include its third-party delivery personnel that handled their last-mile shipments. Amazon previously reported that it had added around 85,000 jobs all over the U.S., Spain, Germany, Canada, and the U.K.
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