Coronavirus Update: Amazon Building Lab To Initiate 'Incremental' COVID-19 Testing Capacity For Workers

Amazon is building its first lab to test its employees for COVID-19. The company announced Thursday, that it is developing an "incremental" testing capacity that might later turn in to regular COVID-19 testing for all employees, including those who are asymptomatic.

The tech giant is deploying employees, including research scientists, procurement specialists, software engineers, and program managers, to make a dedicated team that will work on this initiative, according to the company's latest blog post.

Amazon stressed that regular testing of all employees, including those showing no signs, would help keep people safe and “make a huge difference in how we are all fighting this virus.”

“Those who test positive could be quarantined and cared for, and everyone who tests negative could re-enter the economy with confidence,” Amazon wrote in the blog post. The company stated that it has started assembling the equipment in a facility and hopes to start testing its front-line employees in small numbers.

Amazon wrote in the post that the society needs “vastly more testing capacity than is currently available.”

Earlier, Reuters reported that Amazon was in contact with two coronavirus test kit makers – Abbott Laboratories and Thermo Fisher Scientific to procure equipment to screen employees for coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Amazon also announced that they have distributed masks across its network. “They are available to all Amazon associates, delivery service partners, Amazon Flex participants, seasonal employees and Whole Foods Market stores employees, and we are encouraging everyone to take and use them.”

The company also mentioned that any N-95 masks it receives are either donated to health professionals on the front lines or make them available via Amazon Business to government and health organizations.

According to the latest data collected by Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, 95,735 people have died due to COVID-19. More than 1.6 million are infected with coronavirus across the globe. If we talk about recovery, 355,079 people have recovered from this illness.

As of April 10, 2 a.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. reported 16,690 deaths due to coronavirus and 466,033 people remain COVID-19 positive.