Amazon revealed on Thursday that more than 19,000 workers have tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), releasing detailed figures for the spread of the deadly virus among its employees for the first time.
The tech giant analyzed data on 1.3 million front-line employees, who worked at US Amazon warehouses and Whole Foods from March 1 to September 19 and compared the rates with the general public.
"If the rate were the same among its employees as it is for the public," Amazon said, it would have observed 33,952 cases in the workforce, instead, the US company had 19,816 confirmed cases, which is 42% lower than average estimates.
The company now says it is running thousands of tests daily through its in-house pilot testing program and will grow to 50,000 tests per day across 650 locations next month.
Amazon also announced that it was spending $ 800 million on safety precautions, and another $ 4 billion on its COVID initiatives in Q2 of 2020 alone.
Meantime, more than 7.2 million have been reported as COVID-19 patients in the US and at least 207,400 fatalities.
On Thursday, Amazon said in its blog that "few, if any, other large retailers" have shared their confirmed rate publicly.
"This is not an arena in which companies should compete - it is an arena in which companies must help each other," Amazon concluded.
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