Coronavirus Outbreak At Amazon Plant; Shutdown Considered: Report

KENOSHA COUNTY, WI — Wisconsin's latest reported coronavirus outbreak has been reported at the Kenosha Amazon plant, and local health officials say they're struggling with the company to find out what is happening at the plant.

According to a Wisconsin Public Radio report, Kenosha County health officials said Thursday that they're "not receiving cooperation from Amazon employees at the warehouse along Interstate-94 have contracted COVID-19."

In a Thursday statement by John T. Jansen, Director of the Kenosha County Department of Human Services, county officials along with the Wisconsin National Guard are prepared to test all employees at the local Amazon facility for COVID-19.

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According to a JSOnline report, workers at the Amazon facility contacted the paper to say that at least 32 employees at the Kenosha campus have come down with COVID-19 over the last two months.

The revelation elicited an almost immediate response from health officials in Kenosha. According to the report, Kenosha health officials are weighing whether to shut the plant down over COVID-19 concerns.

“The Amazon campus is made of up two facilities, MKE1 and MKE5, each with their own independent organization structure, which makes it difficult to coordinate a full outbreak picture with the organization as a whole," Jansen said in the statement. “Due to many employees living in or being tested in Illinois, which is on a different public health reporting system, the Division of Health has been unable to accurately track cases in the facility, or to inform employees who may be at risk. Without being in the facility, we remain unaware of whether employees have proper face coverings, and whether they are properly distanced from one another.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company is anticipating working with Kenosha County health officials in the near future. The company also said they've put a number of safety precautions in place to help prevent the spread of the virus.

"Nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our employees and we welcome a visit from the Kenosha County Health Department to see the investments we've made in safety, including enhanced daily cleaning, temperature checks, mandatory masks, and social distancing measures," an Amazon spokesperson said in an e-mail to Patch Thursday afternoon. "In addition, we’ve started our first COVID-19 testing pilot at a handful of sites, and plan to make this available to employees at MKE1 and MKE5 soon."

By The Numbers

Amazon officials released the following information about safety precautions they've taken at the Amazon plants cited in this report.

1,074
Number of sanitation stations placed throughout both sites. MKE1 has 850 and MKE 5 has 224 sanitation stations.

333,000
Number of masks provided at the two sites. More than 65,000 masks at MKE1 and over 268,000 masks to employees at MKE5.

358
Number of gallons of hand sanitizer distributed at the two sites, MKE 1 and MKE 5.

63,278
Number of nitrile gloves available and on-hand.

27,422
Number of ounces of disinfectant at both sites that's used by janitorial staff.

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