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"Through our in-house COVID-19 testing program, we detected an
increase in the number of asymptomatic positive cases at our
PNE5 facility in northern New Jersey and have proactively closed
the site until December 26th out of an abundance of caution," an
Amazon spokeswoman said in a statement to Reuters.
Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, said it isn't
anticipating any impacts to operations or deliveries due to this
shutdown.
It did not specify the number of workers who contracted the
disease at its PNE5 facility, which is a sorting center.
The company, however said, that its employees will be paid for
the shifts that they miss because of the shutdown of the
facility.
In October, Amazon said more than 19,000 of its U.S. frontline
workers contracted the coronavirus this year, or 1.44% of the
total, a disclosure sought by labor advocates who have
criticized the COVID-19 response of the company.
Some staff, elected officials and unions in recent months have
said Amazon put its employees' health at risk by keeping
warehouses open during the pandemic.
The company had said it would expand virus testing to 50,000
U.S. employees per day by November through internally built
capacity.
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