20000 Amazon Employees Contracted Covid-19 So Far

Amazon is one of the big beneficiaries of the corona pandemic and has also been heavily criticized in some cases for operating its distribution centers without restrictions during the global lockdown measures. It is now clear what the consequences will be.

In the spring, when Covid-19 had finally spread rapidly in western countries, the mail order company was repeatedly criticized for not doing enough to prevent the spread of the virus and not protecting its employees sufficiently. Even then, employees and officials from the mail order company wanted to find out how many corona cases there had been among employees who work in warehouses and logistics centers.

The Number Is High or relatively low?

Amazon has now published an official number in a blog post and this can be interpreted in both directions, i.e. for and against the company. Because Amazon writes in its “Update on Covid-19 Testing” that between March 1 and September 19, 19,816 positive tests could or had to be registered.

That’s a large number, of course, but the Seattle company argues that it is relatively small given the total number of employees and compared to the average of the US population. Because compared to the infection and population numbers of Johns Hopkins University, 33,952 positive cases were expected or calculated. In short: Compared to the general population, you are actually doing quite well, says Amazon, Says the mail-order company, “We hope that providing this data and intelligence will encourage others to follow suit and that it will prove useful as states make decisions about reopening public facilities and as employers consider whether and how to do so Bring people back to work.”

Even if there aren’t many companies that publish such figures (albeit belatedly), it is still questionable whether they can appease critics. Accordingly, there were immediate dissenting votes. The Amazon-critical organization Athena said: “Amazon is, without a doubt, a threat to public health.”