NEW YORK – Amazon said Thursday that nearly 20,000 of its staff tested positively or presumably positive for the COVID-19-culpable virus.
But the online retail giant, which disclosed the knowledge for the first time, said its employees’ infection rate is far lower than that seen in the general U. S. population.
Amazon said Thursday on a corporate blog that reviewed knowledge from March 1 to September 19 about Amazon’s 1. 37 million and Whole Foods Market in the United States.
He said he compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population, as reported through Johns Hopkins University for the same period. According to this analysis, if the rate between Amazon workers and Whole Foods is equal to that of workers in general population, he estimated that he would have noticed 33,952 cases among his workforce, 42% more than Amazon’s actual rate.
The Seattle-based company also said it is conducting thousands of tests a day, which will generate up to 50,000 day-consistent tests at 650 sites through November.
Research comes at a time when Amazon, along with other meat stores and processing plants, are under increasing pressure from worker-backed equipment to make their COVID instances public.
The secret has allowed retail staff, including Amazon and Walmart, to become amateur detectors in their free time. Unions and defense teams have also dealt with the cause, creating lists or creating online maps of retail outlets where staff can self-inform instances they are aware of.