Nearly 20,000 Covid-19 cases among Amazon workers

Picture copyright
Getty Pictures

Amazon stated that greater than 19,816 of its frontline employees within the US have contracted Covid-19 since March.

The quantity equates to 1.44% of its 1.37 million employees throughout Amazon and its subsidiary Entire Meals.

Amazon had confronted criticism from workers, unions and elected officers, who’ve accused the corporate of placing workers’ well being in danger.

However the on-line retailing big stated its an infection charge is decrease than anticipated.

Amazon has stored its services open all through the pandemic to satisfy a surge in demand from buyers caught at house.

Staying open has confirmed very profitable for the e-commerce agency, and has added to the wealth of founder Jeff Bezos, who’s the world’s richest man.

The tech big’s gross sales soared 40% to $88.9bn (£67.9bn) within the three months ending in June, and its quarterly revenue of $5.2bn (£4bn) was its greatest because the firm began in 1994.

Low infections

In a weblog put up, Amazon argued that 33,952 employees would have contracted the virus if Amazon’s an infection charge had equalled the broader inhabitants’s, when accounting for workers’ age and geography.

The figures embody seasonal employees and people who could have been contaminated exterior work.

• Amazon warehouse robots ‘increase staff injuries’
• Amazon One: Palm scanner launched for ‘secure’ payments

The corporate stated that it “launched or modified over 150 processes”, distributed greater than 100 million face masks, and applied temperature checks at its services world wide.

Amazon stated it launched social distancing measures and extra cleansing, which “happens throughout every website about each 90 minutes”.

Media playback is unsupported in your gadget

Amazon challenged different corporations to make public their very own Covid-19 statistics.

“This data can be extra highly effective if there have been comparable information from different main employers to check it to,” Amazon stated within the weblog put up.

Athena, a coalition that has opposed Amazon on a variety of labour, planning and environmental points, referred to as on officers to analyze additional.

“Amazon allowed Covid-19 to unfold like wildfire,” Athena’s director Dania Rajendra stated in an announcement.