Another Amazon Employee Has Tested Positive For The Coronavirus


The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, become a member and sign up for our newsletter, Outbreak Today.
At least one employee at an Amazon fulfillment center in Edison, New Jersey has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, two workers told BuzzFeed News. Employees at that location were notified of the infection on Wednesday, but the facility remains operational.
“We are supporting the individual who is recovering,” an Amazon spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “We are following guidelines from local officials and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site.”
The Amazon spokesperson said the infected employee most recently reported to work on March 19, and that the company is taking measures to reduce the risk of infection at the facility. The company didn’t respond to questions about why it’s keeping sites where employees have been infected open.
Around the world, over 1,800 Amazon employees have signed a petition demanding better protections during the pandemic, including that “[i]n the event a coworker tests positive for coronavirus, the facility must be shut down and workers given paid leave at their normal pay rate while the facility is thoroughly sterilized and workers are tested for the virus.”
Other Amazon facilities with confirmed cases are in Kentucky, Staten Island, Queens, Connecticut, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma, and California.
Employees at the Queens facility refused to work after Amazon informed them that an employee had tested positive, effectively temporarily shutting down that facility.
Do you have questions you want answered? You can always get in touch. And if you’re someone who is seeing the impact of this firsthand, we’d also love to hear from you (you can reach out to us via one of our tip line channels).
An employee at the Edison fulfillment center said workers were being encouraged to stand apart from one another to comply with social distancing, but that there was limited hand sanitizer and no masks.
Previously, Amazon employees told BuzzFeed News they weren’t being given enough time to wash their hands and that cleaning of their facilities has been minimal.
An Amazon employee in Florida who requested anonymity to protect their employment said conditions in his workplace have not improved.
“Sanitation on the premises has been improved by hiring an extra person, before [there] was only one,” he said. “Thick layers of dust and dirt are everywhere, on the floors, the racks and shelves and all the bags we use to make deliveries, causing regular allergies to all employees, so coughing and sneezing is standard for everybody.”
The Athena Coalition, a group of more than 50 activist organizations working on issues related to Amazon, hosted a call for employees to share their safety concerns.
“Over the last week, Amazon has failed to demonstrate a cohesive, long-term plan to establish safe working conditions for drivers and workers at its warehouses and distribution centers,” the Athena Coalition said via email. “Workers have publicly voiced concerns that they are bearing the brunt of the responsibility to keep their co-workers and Amazon customers safe and to ensure they and their co-workers are not returning to their families and communities infected with COVID19. With new positive cases arising every day across the country, worker anxiety has begun to spike.”

The journalists at BuzzFeed News are proud to bring you trustworthy and relevant reporting about the coronavirus. To help keep this news free, become a member and sign up for our newsletter, Outbreak Today. At least one employee at an Amazon fulfillment center in Edison, New Jersey has tested positive…
Recent Posts
- Reddit is experiencing outages again
- OpenAI confirms 400 million weekly ChatGPT users – here’s 5 great ways to use the world’s most popular AI chatbot
- Elon Musk’s AI said he and Trump deserve the death penalty
- Grok resets the AI race
- The GSA is shutting down its EV chargers, calling them ‘not mission critical’
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010