Amazon worker dies of coronavirus in New York

Amazon confirmed worker death at Staten Island facility, which has seen protests since March about working conditions

Amazon has confirmed that a worker at a New York distribution centre has died of the Covid-19 disease.

A spokesperson said on Wednesday that it was in the process of informing workers at the warehouse on Staten Island, New York, and has been in touch with the employee’s family.

According to The Verge, which first reported the news, the individual was last on-site on 5 April and was diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus on 11 April.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of an associate at our site in Staten Island, NY,” said Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty in a statement to The Independent. “His family and loved ones are in our thoughts, and we are supporting his fellow colleagues.”

The death is the third known fatality from the coronavirus among Amazon workers during the course of the US Covid-19 pandemic, after two deaths at separate Amazon warehouses in California in March and April.

Amazon workers at the Staten Island warehouse, known as JFK8, have been among those who have protested against the company’s management of the pandemic.

In March, Chris Smalls was dismissed on the same day that workers walked out because of conditions at the facility, after an employee had tested positive for Covid-19.

Amazon maintains that he was fired for violating social distancing guidelines.

At least 29 workers have now fallen ill at the facility, The Verge reports.

Amazon believes that each of the cases at its Staten Island site are individual cases and are not linked, and that the death of the employee this week was not connected to other cases of the virus at the warehouse.

The office of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, sent a letter to Amazon in April warning that its provisions at the site were “inadequate”, reported NPR.

Last month, more than 300 hundred Amazon workers walked-out in an organised series of protests across the US.

Employees have called for further health and safety measures such as deep cleans at workplaces, in addition to the closure of some warehouses and sites.

Amazon has closed only one site in the US, a returns-processing centre in Kentucky, during the pandemic.

The company has taken several steps to address concerns raised by workers, including the enforcement of social distancing, increased cleaning, and wage increases.

On Wednesday, it said that the rate of infection among its Staten Island workforce was below the rate of the surrounding community.