Nearly 20,000 Amazon workers test positive for COVID-19
October 2, 2020
E-commerce giant Amazon said Thursday that roughly 20,000 of its frontline US workers have tested positive or been presumed positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. The company, however, said that the infection rate of its employees was well below that seen in the general US population.
The disclosure comes after months of pressure from Amazon workers and labor groups calling for the firm to divulge information on how many of its staff contracted the virus over the past several months.
Some workers in Amazon logistics centers have criticized the company's safeguards to protect them from the health emergency.
"Since the beginning of this crisis, we've worked hard to keep our employees informed, notifying them of every new case in their building," Amazon said in a blog post.
But Dania Rajendra, director of the labor and migrant activist coalition Athena, said that Amazon "allowed COVID-19 to spread like wildfire in its facilities."
"Amazon is, in no uncertain terms, a threat to public health," Rajendra added.
Here's a wrap of the main developments elsewhere.
Americas
In the US, President Donald Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus. It comes a month before the presidential election and after Trump has spent the year largely downplaying the threat of the virus.
Hours earlier, the White House announced that senior aide Hope Hicks had come down with the virus after traveling with the president several times this week.
Argentina's coronavirus death toll leapt above 20,000 on Thursday as a large number of previously untallied fatalities were added to the total.
The South American nation, which slowed the spread of the virus with a strict lockdown in March, reported 14,001 new COVID-19 cases to take the total confirmed infections to 765,002, one of the 10 highest in the world.
The Health Ministry added 3,352 deaths, most of which were from a backlog of fatalities from the province of Buenos Aires, taking the total to 20,288, just behind Russia.
Read more: Coronavirus: Argentina's never-ending quarantine
Europe
Germany has recorded its highest daily new infections since April. Data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed Friday that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country increased by 2,673 in the past 24 hours, to total 294,395. The reported death toll rose by 8 to 9,508, the tally showed.
Read more: Coronavirus: Can European countries avoid a second lockdown?
Spain, fighting a second wave of the virus, has extended drastic restrictions across its capital, despite fierce opposition from Madrid's regional authorities. Most other regions have also agreed to tighten curbs in areas of rapid contagion.
Madrid is struggling with a rate of 780 cases per 100,000 people, compared with just 300 per 100,000 in the rest of Spain — which in itself is the highest in the European Union. Madrid will become the first European capital to go back into lockdown to fight the steep surge in cases.
Asia-Pacific
India's COVID-19 fatalities are closing on 100,000 with another 1,095 deaths reported in the past 24 hours. The update by the Health Ministry on Friday raised India's death toll to 99,773.
Its reported deaths are low for a country with nearly 1.4 billion people and more than 6.3 million confirmed cases, but experts say it may not be counting many fatalities.
The ministry also reported 81,484 new cases. Total cases jumped from 1 million in mid-July to more than 6 million in less than 2 1/2 months.
Read more: Coronavirus: India will take 'years' to recover from unemployment crisis
Australia and New Zealand on Friday announced a partial opening of their borders to travel between the neighboring countries.
Passengers will be able to fly to the Australian cities of Sydney and Darwin without going into quarantine from October 16 if they have spent at least two weeks in parts of New Zealand that are not considered to be a COVID-19 hot spot, Australian Transport Minister Michael McCormack said.
But New Zealand will continue to insist on travelers from Australia going into hotel quarantine for two weeks on arrival.
In the Philippines, two of the most popular tourist destinations, including Boracay beach, have partially reopened, drawing only a fraction of their usual huge crowds given continuing coronavirus restrictions.
Like in most countries, the pandemic has devastated the tourism industry in the Philippines, which now has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia at more than 314,000, with 5,504 related deaths.
sri/rt (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)