Amazon gets rid of on-site COVID testing

Amid criticism over its working conditions over the past year, Amazon has maintained that employee safety is its top priority, especially during the COVID pandemic. Over time, however, some protocols put in place by the company are lifted, even as COVID infections increase again due to the Delta variant. One precaution in particular would be removed before August. Read on to find out what the company says it won’t be doing after the end of this month.

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Amazon employees can currently take COVID testing on-site, but this is coming to an end. The company told employees it will stop COVID testing after July 30 via an internal memo sent to its internal A-Z app, The Information reported on July 19. The outlet confirmed that it had seen images of the message sent by Amazon.

“Free COVID-19 testing is now widely available and our employees have many options available to them, including through healthcare providers and public testing sites,” the post explained. Amazon told CNN it could resume its COVID testing program if there is a change in guidance from local or national public health officials, but did not say whether or not that would give employees time. free to get tested for COVID.

Despite the lifting of another COVID precaution, Amazon does not require on-site warehouse workers to be vaccinated. However, the company encourages vaccination. In March, Amazon began rolling out on-site vaccination events in warehouses across the country, and by May, that effort had expanded to more than 250 locations in the United States and Canada. The company also announced in mid-May that it was looking to hire 75,000 new warehouse and delivery workers, offering bonuses of $ 100 for new hires already vaccinated against COVID, the Associated Press reported. Current hourly employees receive a bonus of $ 80 to get vaccinated, whether on-site or off-site.

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Amazon has more than 110 warehouses in the United States, according to CNBC. California is home to most of the company’s distribution centers, but there are also several warehouses in other states, several of which have low vaccination rates. In Georgia, where Amazon has at least 11 distribution centers, only about 38% of the state’s population have been fully vaccinated, according to CDC data compiled by Becker’s Hospital Review. Texas, Florida and South Carolina have also fully immunized less than 50 percent of their populations.

Amazon abandoned its mandate to mask most of the vaccinated U.S. workers on May 24. However, warehouse workers in California, Hawaii and Jackson, Mississippi are still required to wear masks, even if they are fully vaccinated. The company also says it verifies that employees are vaccinated before granting them a respite from mask requirements in authorized states. Amazon requires workers to upload images of their immunization cards to its A-to-Z app, and workers who do receive a green check mark indicating they can be on site without a mask.

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