Amazon to stop testing warehouse workers for Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic in the United States must be ended because if not, Amazon’s decision to end free testing for warehouse workers may seem rather reckless.

According to information, the e-commerce giant told workers in a message via an internal company app that coronavirus testing at its logistics centers would be halted on July 30, despite persistently low vaccination rates in some of the states where it practices his activities. For example, Mayo Clinic data shows that Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi all have vaccination rates below 40%. In a wide range of other states, immunization is low enough that it is difficult to say that the risk of an unvaccinated individual contracting the virus is low at all.

Amazon’s excuse to employees, the Information wrote, is that the security measures implemented so far have already put the company back on a “normal course” and that access to testing. coronavirus is now widespread.

“Free COVID-19 tests are now widely available and our employees have many options available to them, including through health care providers and public test sites, ”the company wrote in the note to employees. At least one Minnesota warehouse worker told the Information that safety protocols on their jobsite, such as temperature checks before entering the facility, are no longer routinely observed, although employees who have not received a vaccine are still required to wear masks.

According to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Tracker, confirmed cases of the virus in the United States are on the rise again. The Delta variant of the coronavirus, which research shows could go as far as 225% as infectious as the original virus that triggered the global pandemic, is now the dominant strain Across the country. Health authorities in parts of the country are considering re-implementing mask mandates, according to the Washington post. While studies have currently shown that existing vaccines are effective against the Delta variant, those who have not been able to be vaccinated, have a rare disease that prevents them from being able to do so, or who simply refuse to be vaccinated are at high risk. The pandemic can spread long enough, although potential future waves do not come with the same degree of hospitalization or death seen in the previous ones.

“Most people will either be vaccinated or already infected or they will get this Delta variant,” said the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Dr Scott Gottlieb told CBS earlier this month. “And for most people who get this Delta variant, it will be the most serious virus they will catch in their lifetime in terms of their risk of putting them in the hospital.”

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Friday that infections in the United States increased by 70% in just one week, with deaths increasing by 36%.

“It’s becoming an unvaccinated pandemic,” Dr. Walensky said. “If you go unvaccinated, you are at risk. ”

During the pandemic, workers at some Amazon warehouses staging walkouts in protest insufficient precautions in place to protect them from coronavirus outbreaks, and numerous warehouses have been struck by cases.

At the height of its testing program, the Information reported, Amazon said about 50,000 workers per day were being tested. An Amazon spokesperson said the company would consider re-implementing coronavirus testing if advised by federal, state or local health officials, according to the Edge.

Other companies set up shop in the opposite direction, becoming more cautious about their plans to return to normal operations amid the pandemic. For example, Apple would delay its return to the office date of at least a month (at the earliest in October). Facebook and Google have both made returning to the office optional for the foreseeable future.