Amazon announced on Tuesday that an employee working at one of its Seattle, Washington, offices has tested positive for coronavirus.
CNBC reports that Amazon announced this week that an employee at its offices in Seattle, Washington, tested positive for Coronavirus. The firm told CNBC in a statement: ″We’re supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine. The employee is based out of Amazon’s Brazil office building in Seattle, WA.”
The Amazon office is located in downtown Seattle on 9th Avenue, but is not Amazon’s headquarters office which is located on 7th Avenue. Amazon stated in a memo: “The employee went home feeling unwell on Tuesday, February 25 and has not entered Amazon offices since that time. We notified the employees who we know were in close contact with this employee,” the memo continues. “The risk of transmission for employees who were not in close contact with this individual is assessed to be low.”
Amazon requested that any employees who are experiencing symptoms of the coronavirus stay home from work. Washington state has seen a surge of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, with several cases at a nursing facility. As of Tuesday evening, nine people have died in Washington, the total number of confirmed cases in the state stands at 27 as of Tuesday, up from 18 on Monday. 231 people in the sate are being monitored for the virus according to health officials.
It was recently reported that San Francisco-based social media firm Twitter has instructed its employees to work from home if possible due to fears over the spread of the coronavirus. The firm wrote in a blog post: “Beginning today, we are strongly encouraging all employees globally to work from home if they’re able. Our goal is to lower the probability of the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus for us — and the world around us.”
Twitter’s announcement comes following the news that cases of coronavirus had been identified in San Matero, Santa Clara, Sonoma, and Placer counties, and that four people had died from the virus in Washington state bringing the total U.S. death toll of COVID-19 to six. On Sunday, Twitter announced that it was suspending all non-critical business travel and events.
Other tech firms such as Google, Facebook, and Apple have stated that they are restricting travel to and from China. Google has also restricted travel to Japan, South Korea, Iran, and Italy while Amazon and Salesforce have both frozen all nonessential business travel indefinitely.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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