Amazon.com confirmed March 24 an employee at its Pecan Park Road fulfillment center tested positive for the coronavirus.
“We are supporting the individual who is recovering,” the Seattle-based online retailer said in a statement. “We are following guidelines from local officials and are taking extreme measures to ensure the safety of employees at our site.”
The employee was last on-site March 18 at the North Jacksonville center. Amazon informed its employees and asked anyone who had contact with the employee to self-quarantine for 14 days. Self-quarantined and diagnosed patients will receive up to two weeks of paid leave.
Employees are required to stay home and seek medical attention if they feel sick, and to sanitize their workstations and vans at the beginning and end of shifts.
Amazon said there is no evidence the virus can be spread through packages.
The company said it implemented preventative health measures at the Jacksonville site, as well as others around the world, to further control the spread.
Amazon said it will increase cleaning and sanitizing at all sites, including disinfecting door handles, handrails, elevator buttons, lockers and touch screens. It also will implement practices to ensure social distancing – canceling meetings during shifts, spreading out break room tables and shifting start and break times.
The 12900 Pecan Park Road facility is a 2.4 million-square-foot multilevel e-commerce center near Jacksonville International Airport. The warehouse’s base footprint is 855,000 square feet.
It opened in August 2017 to fulfill orders for smaller consumer items and hired more than 2,000 employees.