Amazon to slow down Covid-19 testing for warehouse workers: source

[BENGALURU] Amazon.com Inc will slow down Covid-19 testing for its warehouse employees in the United States by July 30, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

The source said the testing programme for employees would resume if there were any changes in public health guidance from local or national officials.

Coronavirus cases in the United States are rising rapidly as the highly contagious Delta variant takes hold and vaccinations lag in several states.

During the pandemic, a large portion of the country's population moved to online shopping following lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus, and Amazon has benefited from it.

The Information was the first to report the news on Monday, citing a note circulated through an internal company app.

Amazon indicated in the note free testing is "widely available" and employees "have many options available to them, including through health providers and public testing sites," the report said.

In a blog post published in May, Amazon had said it would rapidly expand its on-site Covid-19 vaccination programme for frontline employees across the US, in fulfillment centres, delivery stations and AWS data centres.

REUTERS