OTTAWA, March 13, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Canadian authorities on Friday ordered
an Amazon warehouse to close and for its 5,000 employees to self-isolate
after a Covid-19 outbreak.
Public health officials said workers at the tech giant’s Brampton facility
north of Toronto were required to “to self-isolate for two weeks effective
12:01 a.m. March 13, 2021.”
“Over the past few weeks, the rate of Covid-19 infection across (the
region) has been decreasing while the rate inside this facility has been
increasing significantly,” said a statement from health officials for the
regional municipality of Peel.
Only workers who had tested positive in the last 90 days and already
completed their isolation were exempt from the quarantine order.
The “difficult decision” to shutter the massive warehouse, said medical
officer of health Lawrence Loh, was “a necessary one to stop further spread
both in the facility and across our community.”
A spokesperson for the regional public health authority told AFP more than
600 workers at the warehouse had tested positive for Covid-19 since the start
of the pandemic, including about 240 in recent weeks.
Amazon did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Toronto area warehouses have been hit particularly hard by Covid-19
outbreaks, according to reports, which led to an inspection blitz last month.
It found that 43 percent of the 208 warehouses visited were not compliant
with health and safety requirements.
Canada’s Ontario province has been hammered by the pandemic, recording as
of Friday almost 315,000 Covid-19 infections, including more than 7,100
deaths.
In total Canada has surpassed 900,000 cases and 22,000 deaths.