- Amazon announced it is diverting the sales of N95 masks and medical supplies to hospitals and government agencies. And the company revealed how it is keeping its facilities safer for workers
Amazon announced it is diverting the sales of N95 masks and medical supplies to hospitals and government agencies. In a blog post, Amazon SVP of Worldwide Operations Dave Clark also explained how the company is protecting its workers.
“Last Sunday, March 29, we began temperature checks at select sites around the U.S. in an effort to ensure that employees and support staff are healthy when they arrive at work. Anyone registering a temperature over the CDC-recommended 100.4°F will be asked to return home and only come back to work after they’ve gone three days without a fever. We are now temperature checking more than 100,000 employees per day,” wrote Clark.
The rollout of the temperature checks across Amazon’s entire U.S. and European operations network and Whole Foods Market stores is expected by early next week. And from there, the company will be testing hundreds of thousands of people daily.
“Disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer are already standard across our network, and the procurement teams have worked tirelessly to create new sources of supply to keep these critical items flowing,” added Clark.
Now the millions of masks that Amazon ordered weeks ago are arriving and Amazon is distributing them to its teams as quickly as possible.
The masks are already available in some locations and in all locations by early next week. And any N-95 masks Amazon receives are being donated to healthcare workers on the front lines or are made available through Amazon Business to healthcare and government organizations at cost.
Amazon also assigned some of its top machine learning technologists to capture opportunities to improve social distancing in their buildings using internal camera systems.
On March 16, Amazon announced that it would be hiring an additional 100,000 people to help meet demand and investing over $350 million to support employees and partners during the crisis.
So far, Amazon hired over 80,000 people into those roles and the company spent more than $150 million to support its associates and partners. Amazon is expected to go well beyond our initial $350 million investment in additional pay.
“Finally, I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate our teams for serving their communities. If someone would rather not come to work, we are supporting them in their time off. If someone is diagnosed or comes to us who is presumptively diagnosed (but unable to get a test), we are giving them extra paid time off,” Clark noted. “In addition, we are also contacting people who have been in close contact with a diagnosed individual and giving them time off as well, for 14 days, to stay home with pay. We continue to evaluate all options to ensure the support of our teams during this unprecedented time.”
