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Amazon has closed a warehouse in northern New Jersey until Dec. 26 after seeing an increase in asymptomatic coronavirus cases.
Employees at the Robbinsville Township, New Jersey facility, known as PNE5, were informed Saturday that the site would be temporarily closed, according to a notice obtained by CNBC.
Amazon employees will be paid their remaining shifts while the facility is closed, Amazon spokeswoman Lisa Levandowski told CNBC in a statement.
“Through our internal COVID-19 testing program, we detected an increase in the number of asymptomatic positive cases at our PNE5 facility in northern New Jersey and closed the site proactively until December 26 for much caution, “Levandowski said. . “That’s exactly why we created the program: to identify asymptomatic cases and ensure we can take quick action to prevent the spread.”
Levandowski did not immediately answer questions about the total number of cases at PNE5 or whether the building will undergo additional cleaning while closed.
Amazon in October revealed that about 20,000 front-line employees hired Covid-19 between March 1 and September 19. At the time, the company said the infection rate among employees was 42% lower than expected, compared to the general population rate in the U.S.
Amazon has previously shut down other facilities for short periods of time after registering new coronavirus cases. In March, Amazon temporarily closed a delivery station in Queens, New York, after a worker tested positive for coronavirus. That month, it also closed a facility in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, after several workers there tested positive.
Most of Amazon’s stores have remained open during the pandemic, as they were considered essential facilities, alongside grocery stores, pharmacies and banks, among other businesses.
The company has previously said that it has made great efforts to keep the facilities clean and ensure that employees follow the necessary safety precautions, such as wearing a mask, using hand sanitizer, practicing social distancing and others. measures. Amazon has also launched test sites in a significant portion of its stores and in October said it performed thousands of tests a day.
Still, warehouse and delivery workers across the U.S. have called on Amazon to do more to protect front-line employees, including restitution of temporary wage increases and the granting of paid layoffs.
Amazon is among several companies competing for their workers to have priority access to the coronavirus vaccine. Last week, Dave Clark, who runs Amazon’s retail operations, wrote to a panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asking that warehouse employees, Whole Foods workers and employees at the data “receive the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible”.
On Sunday, the CDC group voted that people over the age of 75 and essential front-line workers should be next in line for the coronavirus vaccine. Firefighters, police officers, teachers, grocery workers, public transport and postal workers are among the essential workers included in the level, known as Phase 1b. Other essential workers are expected to be included in the third wave of recipients.