April 13, 2020 Joseph Jamrog - Researcher, i4cp

Amazon is building its own testing lab for employees

As pressure mounts on Amazon to keep its warehouses running smoothly and at maximum capacity while also addressing safety concerns from workers, the e-commerce giant has hatched plans to build its own Covid-19 testing facilities.

Amazon announced this past week it has started assembling equipment for its first testing lab. The company said it hopes developing “incremental” testing capabilities will help it monitor the health of its hundreds of thousands of workers, including those displaying no symptoms of the virus.

“Regular testing on a global scale across all industries would both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Unfortunately, today we live in a world of scarcity where COVID-19 testing is heavily rationed.”