Amazon's delays may become even worse as the coronavirus epidemic grows and more workers in the company's shipping facilities are diagnosed with the disease at a time when delivery demands grow from Americans who are staying home to flatten the infection curve.
"Amazon's struggles, in other words, may portend worse things to come for the delivery economy at large, and the news this week suggests that Amazon is struggling mightily," writes Casey Newton, the Silicon Valley editor for The Verge.
Employees in at least 11 of the company's 110 facilities in North America alone have tested positive for COVID-19, Fox Business reports.
The online retail giant has shut down some of its facilities to clean them, and co-workers who had been in close contact with people who were infected were quarantined. Further, Amazon is advising workers who feel ill to self-quarantine for 14 days and is giving them paid leave to take the time off.
"The challenge of maintaining supply lines when delivery workers are getting sick will only grow more difficult," writes Newton.
Meanwhile, an Amazon spokesperson said that many of the company's Prime deliveries, which normally arrive within two days, are already being delayed until late April.
"To serve our customers in need while also helping to ensure the safety of our associates, we've changed our logistics, transportation, supply chain, purchasing, and third-party seller processes," an Amazon spokesperson told Vox's technology news website Recode. "This has resulted in some of our delivery promises being longer than usual."
Amazon is reportedly hiring up to 100,000 people to help alleviate the strong delivery demands, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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