Nine Amazon warehouses have employees with confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus.
The infections were sprinkled throughout the country, including two warehouses in New York and others in California, Kentucky, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, and Michigan. The outbreaks highlight the rapid spread of the virus since the first warehouse infection was reported on Thursday in a facility in Queens, New York.
Amazon spokeswoman Lisa Levandowski told the Washington Post, “We are supporting the individuals, following guidelines from local officials, and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of all the employees at our sites.”
Levandowski noted that extra sanitization measures have been taken by the company, and it has started staggering breaks, lunchtimes, and shifts to ensure that workers can spread out and are not forced to congregate in break areas and doorways.
CEO Jeff Bezos also said he had placed an order for 1 million face masks for workers who cannot work from home, but because of nationwide shortages, he has not been able to obtain safety gear for employees. This problem could be exacerbated by plans to hire 100,000 additional workers to help manage the high demand placed on the company.
Amazon has offered extended leave to those who get ill and offered workers $2 more per hour. The company has 110 warehouses in North America and refused to confirm whether more have confirmed cases than those that have been announced. At least two European warehouses have confirmed cases.
Many are concerned that Amazon could put more than just their workers at risk. In a letter to Bezos, Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Bob Menendez of New Jersey noted that the coronavirus can survive on cardboard for 24 hours and demanded that Bezos explain how he will ensure that the disease is not spread via packages.
