Bezos Outlines Amazon's Plan for Employee COVID-19 Testing Labs
Jeff Bezos reveals Amazon is building dedicated labs to regularly test all employees for COVID-19, including asymptomatic workers. The initiative aims to curb the virus spread among warehouse staff and through delivered packages.
Jeff Bezos releases Amazon's annual shareholder letter with a heavy focus on the company's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus impacts the retail giant at every level, prompting the executive to share new details about the Amazon-built testing labs announced the previous week.
Amazon considers regular testing of all employees, including those who show no symptoms, to effectively stop the disease's spread. While the legality and feasibility of mandatory asymptomatic testing remain unclear due to limited general availability, the company builds a dedicated lab specifically to test its own frontline workers.
A dedicated team of Amazonians shifts from their normal roles to assemble equipment for this first lab and hopes to begin testing soon. With employees in at least 74 fulfillment centers already testing positive, Bezos emphasizes that the company stands ready to share anything it learns from this incremental testing capacity.