Amazon Wants to Innovate Its Way Out of the Pandemic
The company is building its own testing lab, backing an immunology study and considering automation to make its warehouses safer.
An Amazon associate wears personal protective equipment (PPE) at a warehouse.
Source: Amazon.com Inc.
Some workers at Amazon.com Inc.’s Troutdale, Oregon, warehouse think of the coronavirus testing pilot in their facility as a sort of lottery. Managers have been reaching out to employees this month and, with their permission, testing them for the disease.
The self-administered tests, offered as a nasal swab or saliva sample, are shipped to labs under contract with Amazon. Eventually, if things go to plan, the samples may fly in Amazon cargo jets to a lab the company is setting up near its main air freight hub in northern Kentucky.