A warehouse worker at an Amazon warehouse has tested positive for coronavirus, the company confirmed to The Atlantic Thursday.
The Amazon employee reportedly works at a warehouse in Queens, New York. An Amazon spokesperson reportedly confirmed the case but did not disclose the person’s identity. The spokesperson said the individual is being supported by the company in quarantine, and the Queens delivery station had been temporarily closed for “additional sanitation” on top of its “daily deep cleaning.”
Amazon reportedly said it had notified its employees about the diagnosis. However, workers claim they had received the news through a text sent by a member of a workers’ group called Amazonians United, according to The Atlantic.
The case is not the first coronavirus diagnosis within the company. Two office workers at the company’s headquarters in Seattle had also been diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this week, according to CNBC. However, this case is the first confirmed diagnosis in an Amazon warehouse, where orders are packed and shipped from.
Amazon had recently announced it planned on hiring 100,000 employees to keep up with the expected increase in delivery service demand as more people opt to stay at home to keep the spread of the novel coronavirus down. The new job openings include delivery drivers and warehouse workers.
In an effort to keep its employees healthy, the company had also announced that all employees diagnosed with the novel coronavirus or placed into quarantine would receive two weeks of sick leave pay, and that all hourly workers could have unlimited unpaid time off through the rest of March.