Amazon workers in U.S. test positive for coronavirus in 8 warehouses

Amazon workers in eight warehouses across the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, the Washington Post and NPR reported Wednesday.

Citing local media reports and Amazon, the Washington Post says Amazon workers have tested positive with the disease in New York City, Shepherdsville, Ky., Jacksonville, Fla., Katy, Texas, Brownstown, Mich., and Oklahoma City.

In its report, NPR added one more city to this list: Wallingford, Conn., and said that workers have actually tested positive in two separate warehouses in NYC, bringing the total number of warehouses to eight.

Reports say Amazon has temporarily closed down some of these facilities to have them sanitized.

The news comes just a week after more than 1,500 Amazon warehouse workers started a petition asking the company to take more precautions to protect them from the virus. An Amazon spokesperson told the Washington Post that the company is taking "extreme measures to ensure the safety of all the employees" on its sites.

Amazon recently said it's planning to hire 100,000 more workers to keep up with increased demand. The company also said it would not be accepting nonessential products from third-party vendors to ship from its warehouses, in order to free up inventory for other products that are currently in high demand due to the outbreak.

COVID-19 – the disease caused by coronavirus – has so far killed more than 16,300 and infected more than 375,000 people. The outbreak has been worsening in the U.S. in recent weeks, with more than 53,200 confirmed cases and 709 deaths.