United States multinational technology company Amazon said on Thursday that more than 19,800 of its employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, AFP reported.
The e-commerce giant has 13.7 crore workers, including those at its Whole Foods Market grocery stores in the United States.
Amazon said the infection rate is lower than expected. The company added that if the rate of infection among Amazon and Whole Foods workers were the same as the general United States population, the number of cases would have been higher than 33,000.
Amazon said it has been testing 50,000 employees a day across 650 sites. ”Since the beginning of this crisis, we’ve worked hard to keep our employees informed, notifying them of every new case in their building,” the company said in a statement.
In a blog post, Amazon also said that it has invested approximately $4 billion (Rs 29,359 crore) on coronavirus-related initiatives in the second quarter of 2020-’21 ”getting products to customers and keeping employees safe”.
”Amazon is, in no uncertain terms, a threat to public health.”
Amazon’s blog post said the company gives its employees comprehensive health insurance and paid time off for any worker who needs to be quarantined.
(With Agency Inputs)
