An Amazon employee at a delivery station in Houston has tested positive for COVID-19, ABC 13 reports. The associate is a member of the management team, and Amazon shared in a statement that the staff member is receiving medical care and is in quarantine. The company added that other workers have been sent home with full pay.
“We are supporting the individual who is now in quarantine. Since the early days of this situation, we have worked closely with local authorities to proactively respond, ensuring we continue to serve customers while taking care of our associates and we’re following all guidelines from local officials about the operations of our buildings,” the statement read. “We have implemented proactive measures to protect employees including increased cleaning at all facilities, maintaining social distance, and adding distance between drivers and customers when making deliveries.”
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The message adds that “In addition to our enhanced daily deep cleaning, we’ve temporarily closed the Queens delivery station for additional sanitation and have sent associates home with full pay.”
Amazon also shared that it has contacted employees at the site and have asked anyone who had contact with the staff member in question to self-quarantine for 14 days.
An Amazon warehouse in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, has temporarily closed after several workers tested positive for the coronavirus there, the Courier Journal reports. A spokesperson for Amazon said that an unspecified number of workers tested positive and that the warehouse was shut down “for additional sanitization.” A warehouse in Queens, New York was also temporarily shut down after an employee there tested positive.
There are currently over 384,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and over 16,500 deaths. In the United States, there are over 46,000 confirmed cases and 593 deaths have been reported.
Last week, Amazon announced that it would be suspending all non-essential shipments to its warehouse until April 5. The company is currently blocking third-party sellers from shipping non-essential products to its warehouses in response to the increased number of sales the retailer is seeing in response to the coronavirus. On Monday, March 23, the company announced that it had removed more than 3,900 selling accounts in its U.S. store for coronavirus-related price gouging.
“In addition to focusing on our customers, we’re in regular contact with community leaders and government officials around the country in an effort to assist those most affected by the health and social impacts of COVID-19,” Amazon shared in a blog post. “And we are taking every possible step to increase our inventory of relief supplies, basic-need products and other household staples.”
Also in response to increased online ordering amid the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon is opening 100,000 new full and part-time jobs across the United States.
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