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AMAZON’S COVID-19 VACCINATION AND TESTING BLOG
Written by Amazon Staff
99 min
[monthFull] [day], [year] July 30, 2021
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Written by Amazon Staff
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Continue checking here for updates about how we're supporting our employees,
helping customers, aiding community relief, and furthering research during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Click here to jump to updates by date
HIGHLIGHTS
We’re helping to ensure that our employees and their communities have access to
COVID-19 vaccinations and testing. Here are some of the ways we’re stepping up:
* More than half a million Amazon front-line employees have access to COVID-19
vaccines through on-site vaccination events. Learn more.
* Amazon is helping vaccinate thousands of people through pop-up clinics in the
U.S. View photos.
* We quickly ramped-up onsite COVID-19 testing for employees thanks to the
ingenuity of our fast-moving response team–and we’re sharing what we learned.
Story here.
Amazon is also heavily invested in supporting employees, customers, and
communities during the pandemic, from enhancing safety measures to increasing
paid time-off. Here are a few examples:
* We provided more than $2.5 billion in bonuses and incentives for our teams
globally in 2020. Full details.
* We established a $25 million relief fund for partners, such as delivery
drivers, and seasonal associates facing financial hardship or quarantine.
* With an eye on customers, Amazon is vigorously combating price gouging to
ensure fair pricing and fight entities seeking to profit off the COVID-19
crisis.
UPDATES
July 30
Amazon and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health deliver 80,000 doses of the COVID-19
vaccine
Amazon and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health staff gathered at the Amazon Spheres
in Seattle to celebrate the great partnership that resulted in 80,000 doses of
the COVID-19 vaccine administered on Amazon’s campus. This collaboration came
together after only four days of planning and helped meet the need for
public-accessible vaccines in the Puget Sound region.
July 6
Amazon launches at-home COVID-19 test collection kit for customers
Our top priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been the health and safety
of our employees and customers. We’ve invested billions in that effort,
including building an in-house COVID-19 testing program to ensure front-line
employees have access to free, regular testing with state-of-the-art diagnostic
laboratories in the U.S. and the UK. These labs have processed millions of tests
from over 750,000 of our front-line employees, making Amazon a leader in
employer-driven COVID-19 testing. We learned a lot through that process, and
we’re excited to extend this reliable and convenient COVID-19 testing service to
our customers through Amazon.com. Learn more
June 14
Amazon helps fight COVID-19 in Nepal
To help propel on-the-ground relief efforts in Nepal, Amazon is supporting the
United Nations World Food Programme with urgently needed COVID-19 protective
kits. Teams from Amazon logistics sites in Germany prepared the protective
supplies for shipment for the aid flight to Nepal. On board the cargo plane were
850,000 COVID-19 personal protective items—including medical masks, goggles, and
full-face protection for medical staff. The U.N. World Food Programme is working
with the Nepalese government to distribute the protective equipment to relief
organizations and hospitals. Read more.
June 10
Amazon updates return-to-office guidance
Like all companies and organizations around the world, we’re managing every
stage of this pandemic for the first time, learning and evolving as we go. We’ve
been thinking about how to balance our desire to provide flexibility to work
from home with our belief that we invent best for customers when we are together
in the office. With that in mind, we’ve adjusted our guidance on our plans for
returning to the office and added more clarity. Read more.
May 18
More than half a million Amazon frontline employees have access to COVID-19
shots through on-site vaccinations
Our ongoing commitment to the health and safety of our employees throughout the
COVID-19 pandemic has been our top priority. In partnership with government and
public health officials, we are rapidly expanding our on-site COVID-19
vaccination program for Amazon frontline employees across the U.S. The program
has expanded to provide access for Amazon employees in more than 250 locations
in 37 states, benefiting employees in Amazon fulfillment centers, sort centers,
delivery stations, and AWS data centers. Read more.
May 6
Amazon joins U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Task Force to bring ventilators
to India
The newly formed Global Task Force will work to concentrate efforts where
corporate support will be most beneficial. Andy Jassy, AWS CEO and incoming
Amazon CEO, is on the steering committee along with senior executives of other
U.S. businesses.
Immediate actions helping address the COVID-19 surge in India:
* 1,000 Medtronic ventilators to be delivered to India starting May 5.
* Amazon is fully funding the first lot of 100 ventilators set to arrive in
India starting May 5 and will be sent to the hospitals with the most urgent
needs.
* Amazon in collaboration with the U.S.-India Business Council, is working with
the National Institution for Transforming India and the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare to define the distribution plan for these ventilators.
Read more about these COVID-19 relief initiatives.
May 4
Amazon's European business is delivering $2.5M of product to India to help
support hospital and medical facility capacity
Amazon will deliver oxygen concentrators from Italy, ventilators from the UK,
and nebulisers and inhalation devices from Germany. This support is in addition
to the previous donation of 100 ventilators as part of the company's commitment
to help India fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.
April 28
Amazon to airlift, import and donate 100 ICU ventilators to ramp up India’s
supplies for fighting COVID-19
As a part of Amazon’s commitment to help India fight the second wave of the
virus that causes COVID-19, Amazon has procured 100 ventilators through its
global resources for immediate importation into India. Amazon has worked with
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India (MoHFW) to ensure the
ventilators are of acceptable technical specification and carried out
compatibility checks of the 100 units of Medtronic’s PB980 model.
Amazon will work closely with Medtronic as the ventilators are airlifted into
India, which are expected to enter the country in the next two weeks. Amazon
India is working closely with the MoHFW appointed agencies to identify the
hospitals with the most urgent need so that Amazon can partner with Medtronic
for end-to-end delivery, installation, maintenance, and training of personnel
who will use these machines. Read more about this initiative.
April 26
Amazon works with industry partners and NGOs to bring 10,000 oxygen
concentrators and BiPAP machines into India
In the fight against the second wave of the virus that causes COVID-19, Amazon
has joined hands with ACT Grants, Temasek Foundation, Pune Platform for COVID-19
Response and other partners to airlift more than 8,000 oxygen concentrators and
500 BiPAP machines from Singapore, for delivery in India. The medical equipment
will be donated to hospitals and public institutions to support their capacity
to help COVID-19-infected patients across multiple cities in the country. Learn
more about what Amazon is doing to support Mission Vayu.
Lend your spare compute power to the fight against COVID-19
The Folding@home project is running millions of simulations on the coronavirus
and making the data available to the scientific community through AWS. Ever
since Folding@home—a massively distributed computing project set up to
investigate the origins of diseases including cancer, Ebola, and
Alzheimer's—turned its attention to COVID-19 in February of last year, more than
200,000 people worldwide have been donating their spare compute capacity to an
urgent cause. If you would like to lend your spare compute power to the fight
against COVID-19, visit the Folding@home website to find out more.
Learn more about how AWS is supporting the Folding@home project.
Celebrating 50,000 vaccine doses given at the SuperVax vaccine clinic on
Amazon’s Seattle campus
Amazon and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health are celebrating a milestone in
COVID-19 vaccinations. On April 24, the 50,000th vaccine dose was administered
at the SuperVax vaccine clinic at the Amazon Meeting Center in Seattle.
In addition to the clinic in Seattle, Amazon has collaborated with Arlington
County Health and JBG Smith on a clinic at its HQ2 location in Arlington,
Virginia. Since March 29, more than 14,000 doses have been administered at this
location.
Amazon has also been providing surge support to the Washington State Department
of Health’s 2-1-1 call center amid a spike in COVID-19 questions. The center was
overloaded with wait times of up to an hour and a backlog of 4,500 voicemails
until a new system using Amazon volunteers and Amazon Connect technology was
launched in March. The center has since processed over 100,000 calls. The center
also eliminated wait times by immediately connecting callers to a response
system that uses the same natural language-understanding technology that powers
Alexa.
April 20
Alexa can help customers access information about COVID-19 vaccines and connect
them to vaccination sites
As vaccine eligibility opens up nationally, Alexa can help customers find and
connect with nearby vaccination sites. Customers can just ask, “Alexa, where can
I get a COVID vaccine?” or say, “Alexa, where can I get a COVID vaccine in
Seattle?” to hear a list of locations close to you. Additionally, customers can
say, “Alexa, call the first one,” (or second, or third location) to connect to a
specific location directly and learn more about vaccine or appointment
availability. Learn more about how Alexa is helping customers with COVID-19
testing and vaccine questions.
April 14
Vaccination means healing, hope, and protection for this Amazon employee
After receiving his first shot of the COVID-19 vaccination, Philip Cosand, an
Amazon Go Grocery employee in Seattle, was inspired to email Amazon's COVID-19
volunteer vaccination team. We, in turn, were inspired by Cosand’s sentiment,
and asked to share his email. Read his message here.
April 12
Amazon Web Services to distribute $12 million in 2021 to fight COVID-19
In the first phase of its Diagnostic Development Initiative, AWS helped 87
organizations in 17 countries ranging from nonprofits and research institutions
to startups and large businesses. AWS awarded $8 million to support a range of
diagnostic projects, including molecular tests for antibodies, antigens, and
nucleic acids; diagnostic imaging; wearables; and data analytics tools that use
artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect the virus. As we launch
the next phase, AWS will broaden the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative’s
scope to three new areas: 1) early disease detection to identify outbreaks at
the individual and at the community level; 2) prognosis to better understand
disease trajectory; and 3) public health genomics to bolster viral genome
sequencing worldwide. Read more.
March 30
Amazon updates return to office guidance
Today, we shared this update with our teams globally:
Many of you have been asking for some guidance around returning to the office,
so you can better plan the next several months (including school plans for those
with kids). We wanted to share our thinking and provide an update beyond the
June 30 guidance we’ve provided to date.
Our plan is to return to an office-centric culture as our baseline. We believe
it enables us to invent, collaborate, and learn together most effectively.
The timelines for returning to the office will vary by country, depending on the
infection and vaccination rates, and we expect our return to the office to be
gradual. In many parts of Asia, our employees are already back in the office. In
the U.S., as vaccines become broadly available in the next few months, we expect
more people will start coming into the office through the summer, with most back
in the office by early fall. In some countries in Europe, we expect in-person
working to take longer given recent setbacks. As we get closer to the summer,
we’ll develop more country-specific plans and post all updates to Inside Amazon
under Local News.
As a reminder, Amazon offices remain open and about 10% of our corporate
population currently works from an office each day. Restaurants, cafes, and
shops in our buildings are planning to re-open soon as well. As always, we
maintain strong safety protocols, such as temperature screenings upon entry,
physical distancing guidelines, face covering requirements, office occupancy
limits, and enhanced cleaning in all offices. As we transition back to the
office, please continue to follow health authority and local government
guidelines.
The health and safety of our employees is and has been our top priority as we’ve
thought about how and where people should work during the pandemic. Over the
past year, teams have done incredible work under difficult circumstances, and
we’ve learned a lot about the pros and cons of remote work. We look forward to
the day in the not-too-distant future when we can again invent together—safely
and in person—on behalf of customers.
March 25
Amazon begins on-site COVID-19 vaccinations for front-line employees
Amazon is rolling out on-site COVID-19 vaccination events for front-line
employees, starting in Missouri, Nevada, and Kansas. This is an important
initiative not only for the health and safety of Amazon employees, but for the
communities where our teams live and work. Our events will protect Amazon
employees while also helping ease the burden on community-run vaccination
clinics. Read more about this initiative.
March 23
Amazon employee encourages others to get COVID-19 vaccinations
Cindy Kennedy joined Amazon last year after she was furloughed from her job in
the marketing industry. Now, as an employee at an Amazon delivery station in
Concord, North Carolina, she describes herself as the “site cheerleader” with
kind words to support her co-workers. She recently received her COVID-19
vaccination, and she’s encouraging others to become vaccinated as well. Watch
her story on a local news channel.
March 16
Surpassing 20,000 vaccinations for eligible community members
Amazon continues opening its Seattle campus Meeting Center to Virginia Mason
Franciscan Health for COVID-19 vaccinations. To date, more than 20,000 shots
have been administered through weekend pop-up clinics staffed by Amazon and
community volunteers. For more information about the clinics, check with the
Virginia Mason vaccine waitlist online.
March 8
Clinics on Amazon’s Seattle campus provide shots for eligible community members
Once again, Amazon opened its Meeting Center to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health
over the weekend for COVID-19 vaccinations. Many Amazon employees volunteered to
support the logistics of providing a total of 5,950 shots. Since the first
clinic in late January, Virginia Mason has vaccinated thousands of residents on
the Amazon campus. For more information about the clinics, check with the
Virginia Mason vaccine waitlist online.
March 1
How AWS is helping accelerate vaccine development
AWS Vice President Todd Weatherby talked with Moderna’s Chief Digital and
Operational Excellence Officer, Marcello Damiani, about the development of the
company’s COVID-19 vaccine. They also discussed systems to enable global
distribution of vaccines and ways to leverage cloud technologies to accelerate
processes. In this AWS Executive Conversations series, read more about how
Moderna is pioneering a new class of medicines made of messenger RNA, or mRNA,
with significant potential to improve the lives of patients.
March 1
Vaccination clinic on Amazon’s Seattle campus provided more than 2,600 shots
Amazon has opened its Meeting Center to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health and is
working with the healthcare provider to vaccinate people in the region. Since
the first clinic in late January, Virginia Mason has vaccinated thousands of
residents—that includes 2,676 people who benefited from a February 27 clinic.
For more information about the clinics, check with the Virginia Mason vaccine
waitlist online.
February 24
Building a COVID-19 vaccine verification solution on AWS
Amazon is helping the healthcare industry overcome a hurdle in ensuring public
trust in the COVID-19 vaccine. AWS recently launched a system for pharmaceutical
manufacturers that enables healthcare providers, patients, and other customers
to validate a COVID-19 vaccine’s authenticity. The system allows a customer to
scan a vaccine’s label barcode, which contains a unique identification number.
The scan triggers a lookup query that verifies the manufacturer and any
transactions that occurred before the vaccine reached the customer. Read more
about how AWS built the system by using label information from pharmaceutical
manufacturers’ global tracking records.
February 19
Amazon helps facilitate a second round of COVID-19 vaccinations this weekend
About 4,600 people are expected to get their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine
in Seattle. Amazon and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health set up two vaccination
clinics in January at Amazon’s Meeting Center. During the follow up clinics
Saturday and Sunday, Virginia Mason employees will administer the second shots.
Amazon is providing the facility and volunteer support. The clinics are part of
Amazon’s effort to help communities. Learn more.
February 12
Amazon offers up to $80 to frontline employees getting the COVID-19 vaccine
This new benefit is on top of the $2.5 billion we invested in special bonuses
and incentives for our teams globally over the last year, and the $11.5 billion
we invested in COVID-19-related measures overall. Read more about the new
benefit here.
February 11
Amazon’s COVID-19 testing lab processes more than 1 million tests for frontline
employees
Amazon's new COVID-19 testing lab in Kentucky has processed more than one
million COVID-19 tests for frontline employees from more than 700 testing sites,
making it a leader in employer-driven COVID-19 testing. Amazon built the lab
last year in response to the pandemic to help ensure the health and safety of
front-line employees by providing them with regular, reliable access to testing.
Read the full story here.
February 9
Amazon and national business group stress the importance of employers’ role in
vaccinations
Amazon has joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in encouraging
businesses to educate their workers about the importance of the COVID-19
vaccine. Amazon’s Vice President of Public Policy, Steve Hartell, participated
in a virtual meeting hosted by the foundation to discuss employers’ vital role
in U.S. vaccination efforts. He noted companies could also leverage their
expertise to improve vaccine distribution methods, as Amazon has in in hosting
pop-up clinics.
February 8
Ask Alexa to help find COVID-19 testing locations
Alexa can help customers in the U.S. find the closest location to get a COVID-19
test. Just ask, “Alexa, where can I get tested for COVID-19?” to hear the
nearest COVID-19 test location based on the device location setting. You can get
more information by saying, “Alexa, call the first one,” to call the phone
number to confirm the information provided for the location. Discover more
through the All Things Alexa page.
February 5
Need to transition to a virtual desktop? AWS offers free Amazon WorkSpaces
Amazon WorkSpaces is reintroducing its free Work from Home offer to help
businesses and employees set up virtual desktops at home during the COVID-19
pandemic. The offer includes up to 54 users per account at no extra charge.
WorkSpaces customers can deploy Windows or Linux desktops in just minutes and
quickly scale to provide hundreds or even thousands of desktops to workers
worldwide. The latest offer runs through July 31 and can be used in any AWS
region where WorkSpaces Free Tier is available. Read more.
February 3
Amazon employees volunteer to help COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Arizona
The Amazon Fulfillment Center team in Tucson, Arizona, has launched a four-week
volunteer commitment to support the community distribution of the COVID-19
vaccine. The drive-through clinic opened in mid-January as part of a larger
effort to set up several vaccination sites in southern Arizona. The clinic is
expected to serve up to 150,000 eligible residents in the Tucson area. Nearly 20
Amazon employees committed to donating more than 2,000 volunteer hours to
support registration, supply, and traffic coordination, and staff the
post-vaccination observation area.
February 1
Amazon to deliver up to 2 million at-home COVID-19 test kits in Colorado
Amazon is supporting Colorado Governor Jared Polis in an initiative to deliver
up to 2 million at-home COVID-19 test kits to teachers, staff, and selected
students from public school districts, charter schools, private schools, and
Boards of Cooperative Educational Services from across the state. Through Amazon
Multi-Channel Fulfillment, the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment will store the test kits in Amazon’s fulfillment center in Thornton,
just north of Denver. Amazon will then deliver the kits directly to teachers,
school staff, and selected students. Amazon Web Services worked with the
Governor’s Office of Information Technology to develop the system by using a
health department portal that integrates with Amazon’s fulfillment network to
manage orders. Read more.
January 31
Amazon pop-up clinics help vaccinate 4,600 in Seattle
Amazon and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health completed a second vaccination
clinic on January 31 at the Amazon Meeting Center where 2,200 residents received
their first shot. The previous Sunday, 2,400 received COVID-19 vaccinations. The
clinics are part of Amazon’s effort to support communities and advocate for
vaccinations for its frontline employees. Read more.
January 29
Amazon hosts another COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Seattle
Amazon is helping Virginia Mason Franciscan Health vaccinate 2,000 people who
are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Residents can use the state’s
Phase Finder online tool to check their eligibility and then sign-up on Virginia
Mason’s waitlist for the January 31 vaccination clinic at the Amazon Meeting
Center. More than 2,400 people received their first dose of the vaccine through
a similar clinic on Amazon’s campus January 24.
An Amazon engineer’s invention helps keep frontline workers safe
Nick Franklin, an engineer who likes to solve common problems, has created a
simple tool that makes a face mask more secure and comfortable to wear.
Franklin’s product is now being used by Amazon employees and other frontline
workers. Read his story here.
January 27
Amazon teams up with the Florida health department to administer vaccines
People age 65 and older are receiving COVID-19 vaccinations in the Florida
Panhandle thanks to a collaboration between Amazon and the Florida Department of
Health-Lake County. Vaccinations are being administered at a drive-thru clinic
on a first-come, first-served basis at an Amazon distribution site in Groveland.
The site reached capacity its first day, about 40 minutes before the event
began. The clinic will be open Monday through Friday until further notice.
Vaccinations begin at 8 a.m. EST each day.
Vaccinations begin for Amazon frontline employees
Amazon employee Eunice Kim recently received her first dose of the COVID-19
vaccine at an Arizona Department of Health vaccination event. Kim is an Amazon
Pharmacy Fulfillment Trainer in Arizona. Amazon is not only working to ensure
the health and safety of frontline employees, we are also committed to assisting
local governments and public health officials in their vaccination efforts.
Amazon is working with states nationwide to help vaccinate frontline workers and
community members providing essential services during the pandemic.
January 26
Amazon supports Washington D.C. public school students with donation
Amazon and Amazon Web Services donated $125,000 in gift cards to the D.C. Public
Education Fund to support D.C. public school students experiencing homelessness
and increased need due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds will be used to
purchase basic needs supplies including food, clothing, and cleaning products.
January 24
Amazon helps vaccinate thousands in its hometown
A new pop-up clinic in Seattle is the latest in the company's multi-faceted
pandemic response that has also included 1 million on-site COVID-19 tests for
Amazon employees. Full details.
January 20, 2021
Amazon lends support to vaccinating its frontline employees
The essential employees working at Amazon fulfillment centers, AWS data centers,
and Whole Foods Market stores across the country who cannot work from home
should receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest appropriate time. We will
assist them in that effort. Read more.
December 16
Working on access to vaccines for our frontline teams
Read a letter from Dave Clark, SVP WW Operations, to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention advocating for vaccine access for frontline
Amazon employees delivering for customers during the pandemic.
December 10
Upskilling the American workforce after COVID-19
Research from Accenture finds that one in three low-income American workers, if
provided with access to training for new skills, have the potential to access
higher income occupations that are forecasted to grow in the future. Read more.
November 27
Amazon recognizes frontline employees with additional bonus pay
With this announcement from SVP of Worldwide Operations, Dave Clark, Amazon has
provided over $2.5 billion in bonuses and incentives for our teams globally in
2020. Full details.
November 9
Recognizing the 8,000 Amazon Reservists and National Guard members called to
service during the pandemic
From serving as aircraft technicians transporting COVID-19 patients, to
assembling essential COVID-19 test kits, Amazon employees across the U.S. have
served 20,000 days in the Reserves and National Guard so far this year. With
Amazon providing Military Leave of Absence to all eligible serving
employees—including differential pay, continued healthcare coverage, and job
protection—several employees have served more than once in 2020. Video and story
here.
October 21
Updated work-from-home guidance
The health and safety of our employees is our top priority, and it will be some
time before things return to normal. Accordingly, work that can effectively be
done from home can continue to be done from home through June 30, 2021.
October 1
Amazon update on COVID-19 testing
Read the full details.
September 22
Amazon supports film, TV and cinema workers with donation to the COVID-19
Recovery Fund in the UK
The Film and TV Charity is has announced a new COVID-19 Recovery Fund that will
distribute up to £2 million to UK film, TV and cinema workers who have been hit
hardest by COVID-19, helping to sustain them and their careers during and beyond
the pandemic. The new Recovery Fund, founded with a £1 million donation from
Amazon Prime Video, will seek to protect the industry's diverse talent pipeline
by focusing on supporting those at greatest personal and professional risk as a
result of the pandemic. Recent research commissioned by the charity has warned
of the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on some groups, especially those
who may already face barriers to staying in the industry, including Black, Asian
and minority ethnic workers, women, those living outside of London, and people
living with disabilities. Read more.
August 30
Update on our response to COVID-19 in our fulfillment centers
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon, like many organizations,
jumped into action to try to keep our associates safe by avoiding virus
transmission at work. We’ve invested in new processes, personal protective
equipment, technology, time off benefits, and intensified cleaning methods to
keep people safe. Since the early stages of the outbreak, Amazon has been ahead
of the curve in adopting new procedures based on the best available science.
We’ve worked closely with world health and safety experts and scientists to
understand the virus and prevent its spread. We have shared many of the ways we
have changed our processes since the start of the pandemic, and today we want to
share with you how we have trained and continue to train our teams around the
world about how to stay safe at work and home. Learn more.
August 28
Amazon Web Services powers NIH COVID-19 data
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National
Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) announced the creation of the
Coronavirus Genome Sequence Dataset to support COVID-19 research and management
of the virus. The dataset is hosted by the AWS Open Data Sponsorship Program and
accessible on the Registry of Open Data on AWS, providing researchers quick and
easy access to coronavirus sequence data at no cost for use in their COVID-19
research.
August 27
Amazon opens the first Amazon Fresh Grocery Store in Woodland Hills, California
and implements dozens of safety measures
Amazon Fresh grocery store—a new grocery store designed from the ground up to
offer a seamless grocery shopping experience, whether customers are shopping
in-store or online, opned today. We've applied the same safety measures in
Amazon Fresh that we have in Whole Foods Market, such as requiring daily
temperature checks for all employees; requiring face coverings for all employees
and customers entering the store; offering free, disposable masks for any
customer who wants one; operating the store at 50 percent capacity, and more.
We’ve also added new features that further promote social distancing like the
Amazon Dash Cart and Alexa shopping assistance. We continue to operate our
Irvine, California and Northridge, California Amazon Fresh stores as temporary
online-only stores, focused exclusively on fulfilling grocery delivery orders
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more.
August 13
Amazon Prime Video commits over $6 million to support the recovery of the
European TV, film, and theatre production community
Donations will be made to emergency COVID-19 funds set up in countries across
Europe to support the production community as it restarts production. The first
confirmed awards from the fund include a £1 million donation in the UK to the
Film and TV Charity’s COVID-19 Response to kick-start a new grants scheme to
help the industry recover; and a £500,000 donation to the Theatre Community
Fund, launched by Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Francesca Moody to
provide hardship grants to theatre workers and freelancers across the UK. Learn
more.
August 4
Fighting the pandemic with translation
How can people protect themselves from COVID-19 if they can't access important
information about it in their local language? With that challenge in mind, AWS
has joined the Translation Initiative for COVID-19 (TICO-19), to enable
translation about the virus in 37 different languages, including languages
spoken in underserved areas that lack access to real-time healthcare
information. The Amazon Translate team joined experts from Appen, Carnegie
Mellon University, Facebook, Johns Hopkins University, and Translators Without
Borders, among others, to use machine learning technology to scale language
translation. The newly open sourced language data sets will enable translators
to do their work faster and more accurately and drive future machine translation
research to help prepare us for the next crisis.
July 28
Amazon supports XPRIZE $5M Rapid COVID-19 Testing competition; joins XPRIZE
Pandemic Alliance
To accelerate the development of high-quality COVID-19 testing, Amazon joined a
coalition of partners to support XPRIZE, the world's leader in designing and
operating incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges, in
collaboration with OpenCovidScreen, a non-profit founded by scientists and
business leaders to drive needed innovation through "Open Science." Together,
they launched the $5 million XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing competition to
incentivize solutions that are fast, low cost, and easy to use. In addition,
Amazon Web Services (AWS) joined the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance to support
entrepreneurs in uncovering and developing solutions for COVID-19 and pandemics
broadly. As part of the alliance, AWS will collaborate with alliance members on
select initiatives. Since 1994, XPRIZE has developed a proven track record of
creating industry-changing technologies, galvanizing a generation of
entrepreneurs, and helping spur new industries. We are pleased to support XPRIZE
as an alliance member in this endeavor with a mutual recognition that the
challenges we face with this pandemic require radical thinking, across a diverse
set of focus areas. We look forward to adding our expertise to the alliance,
helping advance compelling solutions in testing, diagnostics, and population
health across business, government, and academia.
Amazon to donate 150,000 face shields and makes them available online at cost
Our face shields are now available at-cost on Amazon.com at a third less than
the cost of all other reusable face shields currently available. Individuals and
businesses large and small can make their own National Institutes of Health
approved face shield by downloading the open sourced design package, suitable
for both 3D printing and injection molding. Read more about the Prime Air
innovation and scale behind these face shields.
July 22
Amazon Web Services extends offers to help employees collaborate from home
As the COVID-19 crisis began, AWS helped businesses and employees collaborate
and work from home through Amazon WorkSpaces and Amazon Chime. For Amazon
Workspaces, new customers can use up to 50 WorkSpaces with the Windows Standard
bundle, plus a collection of other WorkSpaces bundles for free. For Amazon
Chime, customers have access to Amazon Chime Pro features at no cost to help
employees communicate and collaborate from anywhere. These offers, originally
posted in April, have been extended through September 30, 2020. Learn more here.
July 16
Amazon donates $10 million in critically-needed personal protective equipment
Amid a new shortage of supplies, Amazon donated 4.4 million masks and thousands
of contactless thermometers to Direct Relief and Feeding America over the past
several weeks. The masks and thermometers went to over 200 of Direct Relief's
partner clinics and Feeding America member food banks and partner agencies in 47
states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Amazon also donated over
273,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to the Feeding America network of food banks
across the U.S. Learn more.
July 15
Amazon updates work-from-home guidance
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we are extending the time frame for those
who can do their job effectively from home to January 8, 2021. Meanwhile,
Amazon’s corporate buildings are open and available to all employees. We
continue to do everything we can to ensure a safe office environment including
temperature screenings upon entry, physical distancing guidelines, providing
face coverings, and enhanced cleaning protocols.
July 13
Helping small businesses apply for loan forgiveness
Nirveda Cognition, a startup powered by Amazon Web Services, uses artificial
intelligence to turn data from documents to actionable insights. The company
wanted to use its technology to help other businesses respond to the impacts of
COVID-19. It built ALFA, a product designed to help small businesses more easily
navigate the process of applying for loan forgiveness from the U.S. Small
Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program and improve their odds of
converting the loan to a grant.
July 12
Amazon Web Services helps customers developing COVID-19 test result notification
systems
Several AWS customers are working on ways to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by
developing systems that can instantly notify patients of their test results and
monitor how the virus is spreading. In New South Wales (NSW), Australia, NSW
Health Pathology developed an SMS (text message) solution that reduced wait
times for negative test results from 7 days to within hours of a patient taking
a test. By automating this process, NSW Health Pathology has saved the
equivalent of three years' worth of time—the time individually contacting tens
of thousands of people with their negative test results would have taken. New
Zealand’s Orion Health, which develops software to improve healthcare outcomes
for more than 100 million patients, developed a pandemic monitoring platform to
help providers identify and curate lists of patients—both COVID-19 negative and
positive—who would benefit from active monitoring or care and tracking their
ongoing progress.
Improving the COVID-19 patient experience
COVID-19 patients are often cut off from visitors, making it challenging to keep
family members up-to-date on the health of their loved ones and leaving patients
feeling isolated. AWS customers have stepped in to offer solutions, EASE
Applications sends HIPAA-compliant text updates to families from the emergency
room, operating room, intensive care unit, and medical floor. During the
COVID-19 crisis, the company is using Amazon Chime SDK to incorporate two-way
video communication into its mobile apps so that families of COVID-19 patients
have reliable, remote communication with the patients and their doctors.
CareMonitor, a provider of remote health monitoring, expanded its platform to
monitor the daily health status of COVID-19 patients with low-level symptoms so
they can recover from the virus in their own homes. In the CareMonitor app,
patients are asked daily symptom questions and collect biometric data like
temperature, heart rate and oxygen saturation to gauge their current health
status. The app is integrated with Amazon Chime, a set of real-time
communications components, to send messages and connect via video to health care
providers. Current Health is enabling more than 40 hospitals and care facilities
in the UK and U.S. to free up beds, applying its remote monitoring technology to
track patients' vital signs outside of the hospital or clinic. Using a medical
device that patients wear on their arms, clinicians can continuously monitor
patients who are at risk of deteriorating, enabling them to perform triage and
consult with patients over video. The Seoul National University Hospital in
South Korea built a system on AWS to remotely monitor mild and asymptomatic
COVID-19 patients, enabling the medical team to determine if patients under
quarantine need to be transferred to other hospitals for treatment.
July 7
Amazon Web Services supports Oregon communities with energy refund donation
AWS donated its $577,000 refund from the Umatilla Electric Cooperative (UEC) to
support Oregon electric utility customers, food banks, and students impacted by
COVID-19. As a not-for-profit, member-owned company, UEC operates at cost, with
net operating revenues returned to its customers in the form of cash refunds via
the Capital Credits program. Learn more..
July 1
Quantifying the silent spread of COVID-19
We recently sat down for a conversation with Dr. Lucy Li, a data scientist at
the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, to discuss her latest research to estimate
unreported COVID-19 cases. The research is supported by the AWS Diagnostic
Development Initiative, a global program to support organizations working to
bring better, more accurate, diagnostics solutions to market faster.
June 30
Amazon donates more than $1.2 million in COVID-19 supplies in Ohio
Over the past few weeks, Amazon has supported donation of COVID-19 related
supplies to over 20 local nonprofits across the state, benefitting more than
52,000 people. "It is wonderful to have the support of Amazon during these
times, especially because our customers need our help now more than ever," said
Matt Habash, President and CEO of Mid-Ohio Food Collective. "We know this is a
marathon, not a sprint. These supplies allow us and our partner agencies to
continue our work in stabilizing families and helping them get back on track. We
are here with our neighbors and for our neighbors. Thank you Amazon!"
June 29
Thank You bonus for Amazon’s frontline employees and partners
Dave Clark, SVP Worldwide Operations, today announced a special one-time Thank
You bonus totaling over $500 million. All frontline employees and partners who
were with the company throughout the month of June will receive a bonus. Details
here.
June 23
Distance Assistant now available via open source
We recently rolled out 'Distance Assistant' to provide employees with live
feedback on social distancing via a 50 inch monitor, camera, and a local
computing device. As people walk past the camera, a monitor displays live video
with on-screen indicators to show if employees are within 6 feet of one another.
Today, we are excited to open source the software and AI behind this innovation
so that anyone can create their own Distance Assistant. Individuals and
businesses large and small can download the package at no cost and get up and
running with just a computer and camera.
In all, Amazon donates nearly 9,000 laptops to Seattle Public Schools
Amazon is donating an additional 750 laptops, valued at more than $200,000 to
Seattle Public Schools elementary school students. This comes after Amazon’s
original donation of 8,200 laptops, valued at over $2 million. These additional
devices will help ensure all Seattle Public Schools students have access to a
device so they can participate in online learning. Read more.
June 17
Amazon donates $90,000 of COVID-19 relief supplies to Ohio-based nonprofits
As the state of Ohio completes its reopening, demands on local social services
continue to increase. Today, Amazon donated $90,000 of supplies to nine Licking
County nonprofits, and partnered with the Licking County Chamber of Commerce for
the distribution. The donation follows a series of announcements by Amazon that
they were creating more than 6,000 permanent jobs in Ohio—many of which have
been filled by those impacted by layoffs related to COVID-19.
Amazon Web services powers remote screening solutions
Several AWS customers are offering technology that can remotely screen potential
COVID‑19 cases. AWS customers include: Innovaccer, a San Francisco-based health
care technology company, launched a COVID-19 Management System in use by over
10,000 leading health care organizations and government agencies around the
globe; Qure.ai, an Indian health care start-up built on AWS, is developing
capabilities to interpret chest X-rays to remotely detect findings indicative of
COVID-19; and Vital, a digital health company, created a software tool to help
people assess their risk of contracting COVID-19. C19check.com is a
self-diagnosis tool built entirely on AWS with guidance from Emory University.
June 16
Amazon introduces “Distance Assistant” to provide real-time social distancing
feedback
As we continue to learn and innovate to support the health and safety of Amazon
employees, we saw an opportunity to further promote social distancing behavior
in real-time. Our new Distance Assistant provides employees with live feedback
on social distancing via a 50-inch monitor, a camera, and a local computing
device. As people walk past the camera, a monitor displays live video with
on-screen indicators to show if associates are within 6 feet of one another. Our
first installations are live in a handful of our buildings and we’ll be
deploying hundreds of these units over the next few weeks. We are also beginning
the process to open source the software and artificial intelligence behind this
innovation so that anyone can create their own Distance Assistant. Read more.
June 15
Amazon Web Services customers use virtual assistants to screen patients and
inform care
AWS customers have developed virtual assistants that give 24/7 access to
resources that can provide answers, make appointments, and ensure that those in
need of immediate help are routed to medical professionals. The University of
Washington Medicine developed a chatbot that can assess the need for testing or
a medical consult, and schedule appointments 24 hours a day. In North Carolina,
to deal with increased call volumes to its COVID-19 help line, UNC Health built
a chatbot that answers questions from patients seeking guidance on COVID-19
testing and what to do if they or their loved ones were exposed to the virus. In
Canada, Empego developed a free online survey and triage tool on AWS to help
health care professionals identify tens of thousands of high-risk cases in
Quebec.
June 9
Amazon works with 3M to stop bad actors
There is no place for counterfeiting or price gouging on Amazon and we are
working with 3M to hold bad actors accountable. Amazon has long-standing
policies against counterfeiting and price gouging and we have processes in place
to proactively block suspicious products and inflated prices. If we find an
individual or company is violating our policies, we work quickly to remove the
products and take action against the bad actor. Amazon supported 3M in its
investigation into fraudulent N95 masks and we welcome collaboration from other
brands.
Amazon Web Services helps the World Health Organization respond to COVID-19
In 2020, AWS helped the World Health Organization Academy (WHOA) launch an app
to support health workers around the world in caring for patients infected by
COVID-19. The app enables workers to access the WHO’s rapidly expanding bank of
educational material and guidance, along with offering virtual skills workshops
and other live trainings. Amazon Web Services (AWS) provided free hosting
services to the WHOA to enable it to launch the app. More details.
June 8
Whole Foods Market named top retailer for its COVID-19 response
Whole Foods Market ranked first across seven industries for its COVID-19 health
and safety practices, according to a new study from Ipsos. The research firm
polled 2,000 Americans to learn which practices they considered most important,
then mystery-shopped stores across 45 major U.S. retailers to determine which
were acting most in line with customer expectations. Whole Foods Market
outperformed all other retailers for the percentage of store employees who wore
face masks and adhered to social distancing guidelines. Read more.
Amazon Web Services powers COVID Atlas to deliver global data sets to the
research community Scientists, researchers, and health officials now have access
to COVID Atlas, an application that collects, aggregates, and processes outbreak
case data from thousands of county and regional data sets across the globe.
Built on AWS, COVID Atlas data is updated thousands of times per day to ensure
scientists and others have access to the most recent information available.
June 5
How Amazon is helping its HQ2 community amid the COVID‑19 pandemic
Amazon is partnering with local restaurants to deliver 10,000 meals to essential
care workers and vulnerable populations. "Food insecurity is the greatest
initial concern our residents experience during the pandemic," said Cheryl Ramp,
with the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing. APAH has seen a 40%
increase in people coming to food pantry distributions at their properties, and
a 450% rise in households that need to have groceries delivered to their door.
Read more.
June 4
All In WA virtual concert now set for June 24
Out of respect for current events, we are postponing the All In WA: A concert
for COVID-19 relief. Originally scheduled for June 10, it will be held on June
24. We stand in solidarity with our Black employees, customers, and communities,
and are committed to helping build a country and a world where everyone can live
with dignity and free from fear. Read about Amazon’s donation to organizations
supporting justice and equity.
Amazon Web Services powers federal COVID-19 resources
A new feature of the Coronavirus.gov website aggregates information from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Health and Human
Services, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to quickly answer the most
common questions about COVID-19. The feature is built on the General Services
Administration’s Cloud.gov, a federal government platform AWS powers. Read more
about how AWS is supporting organizations during the pandemic.
June 3
Amazon Web Services highlights AI and machine learning customers helping to
fight COVID-19
In a post for the World Economic Forum, Swami Sivasubramanian, VP of Amazon
Machine Learning, highlights how AWS customers are applying artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning expertise to better understand and
address the COVID-19 crisis. For example, BlueDot uses machine learning
algorithms to sift through news reports in 65 languages, airline data, and
animal disease networks to detect and anticipate the dispersion of disease. The
Canadian start-up then provides those insights to public health officials,
airlines, and hospitals.
June 2
Amazon offers backup family care to 650,000 full- and part-time employees
With the closure of schools and summer camps, and the loss of some childcare and
adult care options due to COVID‑19, we know it’s challenging to balance home and
work. We listened to feedback from people across the company and are now
offering a new family care benefit through Care.com to full- and part-time
Amazon and Whole Foods Market employees in the U.S. This benefit will provide
each employee with up to 10 days of company-subsidized emergency backup child or
adult care between now and October 2. Full details.
Amazon Web Services supports COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium
projects
In late March, the White House launched the COVID-19 High Performance Computing
Consortium to provide researchers with access to the most powerful computing
resources, such as those running on AWS. As part of the Consortium, AWS has
helped researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology design copies of
protein to “absorb” the virus. AWS has also supported the work of researchers at
Children's National Hospital who are combining hundreds of data sets to identify
genes that could potentially be targeted to treat COVID-19. Learn more.
June 1
New Amazon UK employees come from different backgrounds and share the same
mission
The employees who work in Amazon's operations network are making sure customers
get the products they need. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon
has opened 15,000 new full and part-time positions and delivery driver
opportunities across its UK fulfillment and logistics network. Meet some of the
people who started new careers with Amazon in the UK during these challenging
times.
Amazon Web Services customer provides free curriculum for home schooling
As parents and teachers acclimate to remote learning during the COVID‑19
pandemic, AWS customers are stepping up to help with free resources to continue
the school curriculum at home. EVERFI, a leading provider of digital learning
tools used in more than 55,000 K-12 schools, is giving parents and teachers
direct access to its library of digital courses at no cost.
May 29
Amazon’s support for food banks across America continues with a donation in
Tennessee
Amazon donated $25,000 to Mid-South Food Bank, a member of Feeding America. The
food bank has seen a 300 percent increase in the need for food, as the COVID‑19
pandemic has left thousands of people without jobs or stable incomes. The
organization distributed more than 1 million pounds of food in March, and that
number sharply increased to 4 million pounds in April. Amazon’s donation will
help meet the food needs of thousands of residents in Memphis and throughout the
Mid-South region by providing 75,000 nutritious meals to the most vulnerable
residents in a 31-county area.
May 28
Amazon opens additional grocery store in California as online-only store to
increase grocery delivery
As we continually work to increase grocery delivery to serve more people in our
communities during this difficult time, Amazon has opened its grocery store in
Irvine, California as a temporary online-only store, focused exclusively on
fulfilling grocery delivery orders during the COVID‑19 pandemic. With the stores
in Woodland Hills and Irvine now open to focus on grocery delivery, we have
increased delivery capacity and are able to serve tens of thousands more
customers in these communities. Learn more about how we are helping customers
get groceries.
Amazon offers 125,000 full-time jobs to seasonal employees
Amazon will convert 125,000 of the 175,000 temporary jobs hired since March to
permanent roles if employees would like to stay at Amazon long term. Regular,
full-time roles at Amazon come with a comprehensive benefits package starting on
day one, a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour, and access to training programs
like Career Choice that make it easier to springboard into a different career at
Amazon or other companies. We hope the option for many people to stay at Amazon
will help alleviate some of the ongoing burden of unemployment in communities
across the U.S. as we work together to fight through this COVID-19 crisis. Read
more.
Amazon Web Services customers help fight the invisible effect of COVID‑19:
mental health issues
One-third of Americans have experienced high levels of psychological distress
during the COVID‑19 pandemic, according to new findings from the Pew Research
Center. It’s evident the virus is taking a toll mentally as well as physically.
Survey respondents cited stress from worrying about contracting the virus, to
keeping up with the news, and considering the financial impacts of the pandemic.
AWS is supporting companies like Talkspace, Headspace, and Ginger as they scale
to address heightened levels of anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness due to
the pandemic. Details here.
Amazon expands online use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits
Eleven states have been added the U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot enabling
Amazon customers to use SNAP benefits to purchase groceries online (Colorado,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont,
Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin). We are committed to making food
accessible through online shopping and we look forward to adding more states
soon. Read about the program.
May 27
Governor Jay Inslee announces “All In WA” effort to raise funds for COVID-19
relief through an Amazon-sponsored virtual concert on June 10
Amazon is proud to be the presenting sponsor of the June 10 event featuring
performances by Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, Brandi Carlile, Macklemore, Sir
Mix-A-Lot, and more artists from Washington. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos
will personally match up to $25 million in donations. “I commend Governor Inslee
and the First Lady for thinking big and creating All In WA to help those who so
desperately need it,” said Bezos. “It’s been inspiring to watch the people of
this state band together and push through this crisis, and I’m excited to see
that continue as we raise money for this important cause.” More details.
Amazon Music’s Friday live stream features deadmau5 to benefit COVID‑19 relief
efforts
Global electronic music producer deadmau5 will host Amazon Music’s weekly series
on May 29. Amazon Music and Amazon Live are collaborating with the artist to
help bring awareness to the World Health Organization’s COVID‑19 Solidarity
Response Fund and the MusiCares COVID‑19 Relief Fund. Viewers can learn more
about these funds while watching the stream, and fans may submit questions by
commenting on deadmau5 and Amazon Music’s social posts before the show. The live
stream begins Friday at 10 a.m. Pacific at Amazon.com/live.
Amazon Literary Partnership announces new grants to help writers impacted by
COVID-19
Today, the Amazon Literary Partnership is awarding more than $1 million in grant
funding to 66 organizations. This is in addition to a donation of emergency
relief funding to Artist Relief and PEN America’s Writers’ Emergency Fund. Find
the full list of grant recipients here. Since 2009, Amazon Literary Partnership
has provided more than $13 million to organizations across the United States
that empower writers to create, publish, learn, teach, experiment, and thrive.
Amazon recognized as the food retailer with the most favorable response to the
COVID-19 pandemic
Thanks to the work of thousands of customer-obsessed Amazon employees across the
United States, consumers have named Amazon the food retailer with the best
response to the COVID-19 crisis. Respondents felt Amazon had adapted well to
help keep people safe, according to a survey by Magid. Amazon has invested $4
billion (upon COVID-19 related initiatives to keep employees safe and deliver
for customers. Read more.
May 26
Amazon Web Services powers new effort from Airbnb to keep people connected
With Airbnb suspending in-person Experiences in light of COVID‑19, the company
looked for ways to help its hosts continue to generate income, while also
allowing guests to learn a new skill, safely connect with others, or pursue
interests. The company leveraged AWS to create Airbnb Online Experiences,
offering an array of activities like meditation with Buddhist monks,
family-oriented magic lessons, and team-bonding activities like making coffee
with a professional coffee taster. Airbnb has also partnered with local
organizations around the world to develop Experiences to help those in
isolation, such as older adults, learn a new skill free of charge.
May 25
Amazon Web Services helps mobilize COVID‑19 volunteers
Thousands of food pantries, shelters, employment agencies, and nonprofits are
currently experiencing volunteer shortages, and social impact company VOMO has
made its volunteer management platform, which is powered by AWS, free to any
organization mobilizing volunteers during the COVID‑19 crisis. With VOMO’s
volunteer mobilization and management technology, organizations can coordinate
volunteering efforts and issue calls for assistance to a national volunteer
registry. To date, more than 1,000 new organizations have joined the VOMO
network during the pandemic, and AWS provided increased computational capacity
to help scale and manage the surge in demand. Read more here.
May 24
Amazon Web Services helps clinics store patient data and manage volunteers
The Spark Team, a nonprofit that provides software to support humanitarian
events, is using AWS to help free medical clinics store patient data and manage
volunteer sign-ups for COVID‑19 test sites. The Spark Team’s volunteer
management software has helped Remote Area Medical (RAM), a major nonprofit
provider of free pop-up clinics, staff COVID‑19 testing sites across the country
where thousands of tests are being administered. RAM volunteers have logged more
than 3,100 hours of service at these sites so far. To further support counties,
states, hospitals, and other groups, the Spark Team is currently offering free
use of their systems to help with testing sites.
May 23
Amazon Web Services helps UK charities process hundreds of donations a second
UK-based charities Comic Relief and BBC Children in Need worked with broadcaster
BBC One to host “The Big Night In” to raise money for individuals affected by
COVID‑19 and to highlight doctors and nurses on the front lines. With support
from AWS, Comic Relief’s existing website, as well as its donation and business
analytics systems, were able to quickly scale to process more than 350 donations
per second. The three-hour event resulted in more than 700,000 donations that
raised £27.4 million. The UK government has pledged to double that amount. AWS
also provided Comic Relief with credits and remote technical support throughout
the fundraising event. Find out more about how AWS is supporting governments,
businesses, and nonprofits during the pandemic.
May 22
Meeting the Moment: a new series takes viewers behind the scenes to meet Amazon
employees
Watch the first four episodes.
May 21
Will COVID-19 change the face of women entrepreneurship?
E-commerce could bring new opportunities for women entrepreneurs hoping to enter
the economy in India, where women own just 10 percent of businesses. Read more
from Shalini Puchalapalli, Amazon India’s Director of New Initiatives.
Meet an Amazon employee who inspires her peers while promoting safety
Brandy Bowers, a trainer in the learning department at Amazon’s fulfillment
center in North East, Maryland, is working to inspire smiles while promoting
safety among her colleagues during the stress of the pandemic. Each night, when
she returns home, Brandy crochets hearts for her team and associates at the
fulfillment center. Over the past few weeks, she’s crocheted more than 300
hearts in green yarn to signify the official American National Standards
Institute color for safety, serving as a reminder that we’re stronger together.
Meet more Amazon operations employees.
Amazon Web Services powers repository of images for COVID-19 research
AWS is powering the COVID Digital Pathology Repository (COVID-DPR), an online
repository of whole slide images of COVID-19-related samples that enables
international collaboration in the research community. COVID-DPR provides a
centralized, cloud-based source for digital images of lung, liver, kidney, and
heart tissues from patients infected with COVID19, as well as the closely
related viruses SARs and MERs. The images, scientific notes, and metadata will
be used as reference data for education, research, and future clinical trials.
COVID-DPR is part of a joint collaboration with the National Institutes of
Health, Octo Consulting Group, and others. More details.
A new shelter for homeless families opens on Amazon's campus amid the COVID‑19
crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting lives around the world, and families
fighting homelessness are at particularly high risk with no safe space to call
home. Mary's Place, a Seattle-based nonprofit that provides shelter and services
for women, children, and families, is supporting many people during this
uncertain time. Read more and see photos of the new Mary’s Place center that’s
opened inside one of Amazon’s corporate offices. “While I’ve long been excited
for the new Mary’s Place Family Center in The Regrade in the heart of Amazon’s
Seattle campus to open, I never could have imagined the shelter would open at
such a critical time,” said John Schoettler, Amazon Vice President of Global
Real Estate and Facilities.
Zoom grows on Amazon Web Services to help people stay connected
Zoom, a provider of business video and audio conferencing that runs primarily on
AWS, is offering universal free access to its core conferencing technology for
calls of up to 40 minutes and 100 participants. Zoom helps people around the
world keep up with business, education, and social meetings as they stay safe at
home. Zoom also provides teachers, administrators, and students with the
resources they need to quickly spin up virtual classrooms, participate in online
classes, and continue their education online. Find out more about how AWS is
helping their customers scale during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
May 20
How front-line organizations are using Amazon donated devices amid the pandemic
Over the past several weeks, we have provided $5 million in Amazon Devices to
hospitals, schools, and community organizations around the globe to help those
impacted by COVID-19. One example is Saint Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey
which provided patients with Fire 7 tablets. In their words, “Your donations
will allow countless children, parents, siblings, friends, and loved ones to
comfort and unfortunately in most cases say goodbye to patients who are
otherwise isolated. You have indelibly affected and will continue to affect the
lives of so many patients, staff, and families. I’m proud to be an Amazon
customer and will forever be grateful for your contribution in helping our
communities." Read more.
Amazon Music live stream with John Legend will benefit COVID‑19 relief efforts
Multi-platinum singer-songwriter and EGOT winner John Legend will take over
Amazon Music's Friday live performance series, a new program featuring
stripped-down sets and intimate conversations with artists. John will answer
questions from fans and perform new tracks from his forthcoming album, including
"Bigger Love" and "Conversations in the Dark." During the live stream viewers
can learn more about the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity
Response Fund and the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund. The Amazon Music series
begins at 10 a.m. PT Friday, May 22, on Amazon.com/live.
Amazon Web Services supports MedStar Health’s COVID‑19 telehealth response
MedStar Health, the largest healthcare provider in the Maryland and D.C. region,
quickly scaled telehealth solutions amid the pandemic with support from AWS. A
month after the outbreak started, MedStar Health providers were delivering an
average of 3,500+ outpatient telehealth sessions every weekday. MedStar Health
also launched two call centers—one for providers and one for patients waiting on
COVID‑19 lab results—in less than a week using Amazon Connect, an AWS solution
that helps customers deploy cloud-based call centers. Read about other ways AWS
is keeping organizations running during the pandemic.
May 19
See our latest TV commercial about keeping Amazon employees safe
Keeping Amazon employees safe
Amazon Business delivers 100 million critical supplies to healthcare and
government organizations at cost
Throughout the COVID‑19 pandemic, the demand for health and safety products has
outpaced supply. That’s why Amazon Business created COVID‑19 Supplies, a program
offering organizations with the most urgent need—like hospitals and senior
living facilities—critical products to fight the pandemic at cost. More than
13,000 healthcare providers and 7,000 government organizations have used
COVID‑19 Supplies since it launched in the U.S. on March 31, and the program has
expanded to Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan,
and India. Read more.
Amazon Web Services expands Rhode Island’s capacity to process unemployment
applications
Rhode Island’s unemployment insurance applications surged 10 times the volume
the state’s legacy computer system could handle. With AWS support, the
Department of Labor and Training’s website has been able to efficiently process
more than 132,000 claims in six weeks. AWS also collaborated with Research
Improving People’s Lives, a nonprofit that uses data to inform policymaker
decisions, to develop an online application portal that helps the state to
verify applicants’ eligibility for benefits and expedite payments. This has
enabled Rhode Island to become one of the first states to process Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance claims.
May 18
"Amazon Wants to Innovate Its Way Out of the Pandemic"
Bloomberg posted this technology story today about how Amazon is building its
own testing lab, backing an immunology study, and considering automation to make
its fulfillment centers safer.
Helping educators close the digital divide for students in Oakland, California
Amazon donated $100,000 to support the Oakland Unified School District and the
City of Oakland’s mission to close the digital divide for students from
underserved communities. Amazon’s donation will help 200 Oakland Public Schools
students receive the tools they need (such as laptops and internet connectivity)
to continue their education from home amid the COVID‑19 pandemic. Amazon is also
supporting at-home learning through Amazon Future Engineer and AWS Educate.
Amazon Web Services helps Propel deliver technology for those in need
Propel, a company focused on building software to help low-income Americans
improve their financial health, has developed the Fresh Electronic Benefit
Transfer (EBT) app. Powered by AWS, Fresh EBT has helped more than 3 million
individuals per month manage their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,
save with coupons, and find jobs through the app. Find out how AWS is supporting
other companies, governments, and nonprofits during the COVID‑19 pandemic.
May 17
Supporting communities in need throughout Massachusetts
Amazon donated $100,000 to the Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund. Amazon’s
donation will help support dozens of Massachusetts-based nonprofits that serve
communities disproportionately impacted by COVID‑19. In addition, long-time
nonprofit partner St. Mary’s Center for Women and Children, located in the
Boston-area, will use part a 2018 $1 million match donation from Amazon to
deliver essential services to mothers and children fighting homelessness amid
the pandemic. Amazon has created more than 4,000 full-time jobs across
Massachusetts.
Amazon Web Services powers COVID‑19 research with Michigan State University
AWS collaborated with Michigan State University to develop a public website that
hosts, shares, and tracks the latest clinical research on convalescent plasma
(blood characteristics from individuals who have recovered from COVID‑19). AWS
deployed the website in one day, allowing thousands of medical professionals to
connect with other clinicians to share their latest findings on the use of
convalescent plasma as a treatment for COVID‑19 patients.
May 16
Military experience and Amazon skills help stand up COVID‑19 test sites in
Florida
Since the beginning of the COVID‑19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of
Amazonians have been proudly serving their communities, but few are quite like
Evan Cartwright. He’s an operations manager at an Amazon fulfillment center
outside of Tampa, and also serves in the Florida Army National Guard.
Cartwright’s unit was activated to help establish a testing center in Orlando.
For three weeks Cartwright, a First Lieutenant in the 3-265th Air Defense
Artillery Battalion, used the logistics skills he developed at Amazon to keep
critical supplies flowing to the testing site. On this Armed Forces Day 2020,
read his story.
Using the cloud to study COVID‑19 genomes
Amazon Web Services is supporting the University of California, San Francisco
Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute on two genome sequencing projects.
The goal of the projects is to better understand different COVID‑19 strains to
diagnose and treat the virus. AWS provided technical support and donated service
credits through the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative to advance this work.
May 15
Amazon donations help families in need care for their pets
Since March 2, 2020, Amazon’s Baltimore fulfillment centers have donated more
than 4,000 items, including 6,500 pounds of pet food to the Maryland Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MDSPCA), supporting 500 pets during the
pandemic. "We have a program at the MDSPCA called Kibble Connection that helps
families in need feed and care for their pets,” said Kelly Anderson, MDSPCA
animal care manager. "Not only does this help relieve the financial burden
sometimes put on people during times of hardship, but ultimately keeps pets in
home with the families that love them. There is no way we would be able to
accomplish our mission without you [Amazon]!"
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"Alexa, remind me to cheer at 8pm"
Now, you can ask Alexa to set a reminder to cheer for frontline workers in your
area at 8pm every evening. Plus, it's now easier than ever to discover free
movies, TV shows, news and more with the new "free" tab at the top navigation of
the Fire TV menu.
Prime Video streams a PGA charity golf event to raise money for COVID‑19 relief
efforts
PGA Tour superstars Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson will tee it up against
Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff this Sunday to raise money for COVID-19 relief
efforts. The event, “TaylorMade Driving Relief,” will be available for free to
all Amazon customers in the U.S. More details here.
Delivering meals and donations to vulnerable populations in our HQ communities
Amazon is using its delivery network to support the immediate needs of
vulnerable populations in Seattle and the Washington D.C. area. In Seattle,
we’re delivering more than 48,000 meals to Seattle Public Schools students and,
alongside FareStart, to families residing in Seattle Housing Authority homes.
The deliveries to Seattle families will support students who are medically
fragile, have disabilities, or who are fighting homelessness. In Washington
D.C., we’re donating thousands of needed items, including hygiene and cleaning
products, shelf-stable food, and school supplies to nonprofits across the area.
May 14
Amazon Studios to provide $1 million to help Los Angeles restaurants feed those
in need
Amazon Studios will be providing $1 million to the catering team at the
award-winning Jon & Vinny's restaurant group to prepare meals for local
charities feeding those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic, including No Kid
Hungry, Off Their Plate, the Los Angeles Mission, and the Motion Picture &
Television Fund. "At Amazon Studios and Prime Video, we're truly honored to be
able to show our support to the community that has always supported us, and to
team up with Jon and Vinny's to provide food to those who so desperately need it
along with a lifeline to local businesses," said Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon
Studios.
Amazon Fashion partners with Vogue to support independent American designers
affected by the COVID-19 pandemic
Vogue, Amazon Fashion and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) are
launching "Common Threads: Vogue x Amazon Fashion," a dedicated, digital
storefront that enables small and medium-sized fashion businesses to reach
Amazon’s customer base, and to access its advanced fulfillment network. To
provide additional support to the American fashion community, including the
pattern makers, the cutters, the tailors, the embroiderers and so many more
business and creative employees, Amazon Fashion is providing immediate
assistance by donating $500,000 to A Common Thread. Learn more here.
Using Prime Air’s innovation and scale to help protect medical professionals
An idea from 3D printing enthusiasts became a passion project for some Amazon
employees during the COVID‑19 pandemic. To date, Amazon has donated nearly
10,000 3D-printed face shields and is on track to deliver 20,000 more in the
coming weeks. See what the team is doing.
Helping students within our HQ communities learn from home
We’ve helped purchase and deliver 300 Wi-Fi devices to families with low
internet connectivity within the Arlington Public School district to support
students learning at home. Amazon employees are also providing technical
expertise to Seattle Public Schools students and their families as they navigate
remote education during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Learn more.
May 13
Extending hourly pay increases through the end of May
We’ve extended the increased hourly pay through May 30. We are also extending
double overtime pay in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, we are providing
flexibility with leave of absence options, including expanding the policy to
cover COVID-19 circumstances, such as high-risk individuals or school closures.
We continue to see heavy demand during this difficult time and the team is doing
incredible work for our customers and the community. Learn more about our focus
on safety, pay, benefits, and job creation.
Amazon calls on Congress to establish a federal price gouging law
As bad actors seek to profit off the COVID-19 crisis, federal legislation is
needed to protect consumers. Read the full story from Brian Huseman, Amazon Vice
President for Public Policy.
Amazon Music hosts a live stream with Katy Perry to raise awareness for a
COVID‑19 relief fund
Amazon Music's new Friday live performance series, bringing stripped-down sets
and intimate conversations with superstar artists, returns May 15th with pop
icon Katy Perry. The event will raise awareness for the MusiCares COVID-19
Relief Fund which seeks to help those in the music community affected by the
pandemic. Viewers will have the option to learn more about efforts to help those
in the music community, while watching the stream. Katy will perform new song,
"Daisies," for the first time on its release day, as well as "Roar" and "Never
Really Over." She'll also answer questions from fans. The live stream begins at
10 a.m. Pacific on Amazon.com/live.
Amazon continues expanding online use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program benefits
Idaho, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington D.C. are the latest to
join a U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot enabling customers to use
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits to purchase groceries online.
Ten states are already a part of the pilot, and we are committed to adding more
soon as part of our effort to make food accessible through online shopping.
May 12
Thousands of UK children receive free, healthy breakfasts
Thanks to an expanded partnership between Magic Breakfast and Amazon, 375,000
packages of healthy breakfast food are set for delivery around the UK. Watch
below, and read more here.
Amazon donates $50,000 to Indiana and Kentucky hunger relief non-profit
In a continuing effort to support foodbanks around the country during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Amazon has donated $50,000 to the largest hunger relief
organization that covers 13 counties in Indiana and Kentucky. The funds will
support Dare to Care an organization that partners with 271 local agencies on
hunger relief efforts. Amazon’s donation will provide more than 150,000 healthy,
nutritious meals.
How Amazon Web Services supports others during the COVID‑19 crisis with its
scale, reach, and reliability
Many AWS customers have not only set up the tools and services to keep their own
workforces productive, but are also creating ways to help others. They are
standing up innovative new services and making their core services available to
organizations at discounted rates or no cost at all. Read more than a dozen
examples that show how quickly customers and partners have been able to leverage
the cloud to adapt to this new environment.
May 11
Making it easier to support small businesses selling handcrafted goods
Amazon Handmade, our store for artisans selling handcrafted products, has
launched a new shop to help connect customers with local small businesses facing
disruption amid the COVID‑19 pandemic. The new shop features artisans from
across six regions of the U.S. Read more about the new storefront and artisans
from across the country.
Amazon donates more devices to hospitals around the world
* Kyoto University Hospital in Japan received Fire 7 tablets.
* National Cancer Center Hospital East in Japan received Fire 7 tablets.
* An Amazon Gift Card donation helped Tallaght University Hospital in Dublin,
Ireland, enhance the technology in patient rooms, ICU and nurses’ stations.
* Central and North West London NHS Trust received Fire HB 8 tablets.
Read more about Amazon’s $5 million donation of devices globally to help
healthcare workers, patients, students, and communities impacted by COVID‑19.
Amazon Future Engineer provides weekly coding contests for students
Our program to offer childhood to career computer science opportunities, Amazon
Future Engineer, is hosting coding competitions for students during the COVID-19
pandemic. Students in grades 6-12 can use code to remix songs provided by Grammy
Award winning artists Ciara and Common through Georgia Tech's EarSketch program.
Each week, the winning student who produces the winning remix will win an Amazon
gift card. To participate, click here.
May 10
Meet Amazon moms (Happy Mother’s Day!) and other employees who are helping
fulfill customer orders
Being a working mom is hard. Being a working mom with six children is harder.
Dallas Austin somehow brings unwavering positivity to the challenge of being a
working mom during a global pandemic. “I’m proud to be working right now,” she
said. “I know others, especially high-risk individuals, are counting on us to
deliver items they need so they don’t have to leave their homes.”
May 9
What has changed inside Amazon fulfillment centers due to the COVID‑19 pandemic?
Find out from Maria Lopez, an Amazon employee (and mother of five).
Amazon Web Services helps Kentucky scale its unemployment call centers
Prior to COVID‑19, a handful of agents staffed the State of Kentucky’s
unemployment call center using technology that required them to work from state
offices. Using Amazon Connect, the Kentucky Office of Unemployment Insurance
set-up a cloud based call center in one afternoon and trained its agents in just
30 minutes, so they could work from home. The state then used Amazon Connect to
build a statewide call center to manage about 200,000 daily calls fielded by
more than 1,000 call center agents.
May 8
New Alexa features to stay connected and focused
Use group Drop In to instantly connect all of your Echo devices into a group
conversation, simply say "Alexa, drop in on all devices." Plus, you can now
react to photos shared with you by your Alexa contacts with animated emojis, and
a new "Focus Time" routine helps you keep your work or study session on track.
Read more about how Alexa and Amazon devices can keep you connected and focused.
Amazon Web Services helps expedite funding for COVID‑19 research
AWS is powering Fast Grants, a research funding mechanism to rapidly deploy
grants to expedite COVID‑19 research. Fast Grants was designed to make funding
decisions in under 48 hours. The global program focuses on supporting
researchers who are working on projects that could help with the pandemic within
the next six months. Read about other ways AWS is seeking solutions during the
COVID‑19 crisis.
May 7
Amazon Original Series Regular Heroes shows courage amid COVID-19 from across
the U.S.
A hospital worker. A grocery store owner. A woman fighting homelessness in her
community. These are a few of the stories featured in a new Amazon Original
docuseries called Regular Heroes. The eight-episode docuseries shines the
spotlight on those helping to support their community during the COVID-19
pandemic. Regular Heroes will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S., UK,
Canada, and Australia on Friday, May 8, and in other territories on May 12.
Learn more about the series and the heroes it features.
Amazon donates 1,550 tablets and laptops to the American Indian College Fund
The American Indian College Fund is a nonprofit committed to supporting
thousands of Native American students and nearly 40 tribal colleges across the
U.S. Amazon is donating 1,000 Fire HD 8 tablets and 550 laptops to the
nonprofit, which will distribute the devices to students and faculty who
otherwise would not have access to technology while schools are closed during
the COVID‑19 pandemic.
May 6
Amazon Music hosting live stream with Tim McGraw to benefit COVID-19 relief
funds
Amazon Music and Amazon Live have partnered with multi-GRAMMY award-winning
country music icon Tim McGraw on a live stream to bring awareness to the World
Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and the MusiCares
COVID-19 Relief Fund. During the stream, which will take place Friday, May 8,
McGraw will perform and answer questions for fans, who have the option to learn
more about relief efforts while watching. This is the first stream in a new
series from Amazon Music that will feature different artists and benefit various
charities. This Friday’s live stream, and future episodes, will be available to
stream in the U.S. at 10 a.m. PT on Fridays by visiting Amazon.com/live.
Amazon is helping the nation’s second largest school district with online
learning
We’re helping Los Angeles Unified, home to more than 700,000 students, with
remote learning amid COVID-19. Amazon, Amazon Business, and Amazon Web Services
are supporting parents, students, and faculty by standing up contact centers and
delivering school-issued devices to tens of thousands of students so they can
learn at home. Here’s how.
Amazon donations continue with $100,000 to support Ohio foodbanks
We are donating $100,000 to organizations working to relieve hunger across Ohio
amid COVID‑19. This donation includes $50,000 to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank to
support its COVID‑19 Emergency Response Fund and $50,000 to the Greater
Cleveland Food Bank. This follows an announcement that Amazon is creating more
than 11,000 jobs in Ohio to support those impacted by layoffs related to the
pandemic.
May 5
Amazon partners with Homeland Security Investigations to protect consumers from
fraud
"Since the beginning of the COVID‑19 crisis, Amazon has proactively stopped more
than 6.5 million products with inaccurate claims, removed over 1 million offers
for suspected price gouging, suspended more than 10,000 selling accounts for
suspected price gouging and referred the most egregious offenders to federal and
state law enforcement across the country. Amazon welcomes HSI’s partnership in
holding counterfeiters and bad actors accountable, and we look forward to
building on our long-standing relationship to protect customers and ensure a
trusted shopping experience," said Dharmesh Mehta, Amazon vice president,
customer trust and partner support. More details.
Small businesses step up to help customers and communities during the COVID‑19
pandemic
Third-party sellers, small- and medium-sized businesses that sell products
through Amazon, have remained committed to supporting customers and communities
throughout the pandemic. From donating essential supplies to producing
much-needed items like hand sanitizer, businesses selling through Amazon are
supporting communities around the globe. Read more about their efforts.
Amazon funds 1.2 million meals in Florida and Chicago-area
We’ve made donations to many organizations to support food assistance programs
during the COVID‑19 pandemic. The latest donations include $100,000 to Feeding
Florida, a state-wide foodbank network, and $200,000 to the Greater Chicago Food
Depositary, a foodbank for in the Chicago area. Amazon’s support will provide
600,000 meals in Florida and 600,000 meals in the Chicago area for those in
need.
Amazon donates to COVID‑19 charity efforts when customers shop on AmazonSmile
AmazonSmile is a way to support important causes this Giving Tuesday, and every
day throughout the year. Through the AmazonSmile program, Amazon has donated
more than $180 million to hundreds of thousands of charities worldwide so they
can expand their meaningful work. When you start your shopping at
smile.amazon.com, Amazon will donate a percentage of the purchase price of
eligible products to a charity of your choice. You can also visit AmazonSmile
Charity Lists to donate needed items directly to charitable organizations of
your choice. AmazonSmile has more than one million charities to choose from
including Feeding America, Save the Children and Meals on Wheels America, and
more, that are helping with COVID‑19 response.
May 4
Meet an Amazon driver lending a hand to the Houston community
Amazon fulfillment centers in the Northeast U.S. support local communities
An Amazon fulfillment center in Northern Pennsylvania donated $100,000 to the
Commission on Economic Opportunity to support local food banks during the
COVID‑19 crisis. The funds will provide an estimated 286,000 pounds of food,
including fresh produce and wholesale non-perishable food items, and provide
assistance to an estimated 20,000 individuals. In addition, a Massachusetts
fulfillment center has donated 15,000 boxes to help the Greater Boston food bank
deliver meals to those in need.
Words of gratitude amid the COVID‑19 pandemic
People around the world send messages of thanks to Amazon employees who are
shipping and delivering much-needed items during this crisis. “I am high risk
and have been very anxious whenever my husband has to go out for weekly
shopping. A big thank you to all the people at Amazon helping us through this,”
a UK customer wrote. Read more here.
May 3
Amazon Web Services helps Chan Zuckerberg Biohub estimate unreported COVID‑19
infections
AWS is supporting an effort from Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a non-profit furthering
research to manage diseases, to estimate unreported COVID‑19 cases. This
collaboration is a part of the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative, a global
program to support organizations working to bring better, more accurate,
diagnostics solutions to market faster. Read more about the AWS initiative, and
how AWS is seeking solutions during the pandemic.
May 2
Meet an employee responsible for training others in an Amazon fulfillment center
With 175,000 new people hired at Amazon since the start of the pandemic, Jerome
Lewis is finding even deeper meaning in his work. "Teaching new hires is always
rewarding, no matter the circumstance. However, it's incomparable to now," said
Lewis, a learning manager at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Tracy, California.
"A lot of the current new hires had jobs and careers two months ago and now have
to make ends meet. My job is to ensure that they can be successful here. I take
pride in that." Read more.
Watch 5-year old Jameson deliver smiles in his very own Prime truck
"Alexa, play Some Good News"
Need some positive energy? You can now watch new episodes of Some Good News with
John Krasinski, a video series focused on positive stories from around the
world, directly from your Echo device. Just say, "Alexa, play Some Good News."
Read more about how Alexa and Amazon Devices can keep you informed and
entertained.
Amazon Web Services supports COVID‑19 data resource to accelerate research
AWS has teamed up with C3.ai, a leading artificial intelligence software
provider, to accelerate research efforts to fight the spread of COVID‑19. C3.ai
has built a data lake, which compiles datasets about the disease from multiple
sources, so researchers don’t have to spend time wrangling data and can focus on
generating insights. AWS provided cloud infrastructure to support. Learn more
here.
May 1
Amazon donates CAD$3 million to relief organizations in Canada
We are donating CAD$3 million ($2.1 million USD) to organizations supporting
those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis in Canada. This includes CAD$1.5
million for the Canadian Red Cross, United Way Centraide Canada, and Food Banks
Canada to support their critical pandemic relief efforts. We’re also creating a
CAD$1.5 million fund to help local organizations in the communities where our
employees live and work. These funds will help support food banks and procure
protective equipment for local hospitals, among other efforts. Read more.
Letters from our frontline employees in India
When our customers write to us, we listen. Customers have been sending letters
of thanks to our people who work across the Amazon fulfillment network in India.
In turn, our employees responded by expressing their heart-felt thoughts. “Dear
Customer, I request you from the bottom of my heart not to leave your homes, but
to stay safe during this lockdown period. It is really a dangerous situation out
there these days. We are continuously trying to fight back the coronavirus and
we need your help to win this fight.” See dozens of letters here.
Amazon Brazil donates to organizations fighting COVID‑19
We have donated R$5 million ($1 million USD) to two Brazilian nonprofits
supporting communities during the pandemic: Comunitas and the Alice Figueira
Foundation. The organizations will use the funds to purchase personal protective
equipment like masks, medical equipment like ventilators, and food.
Amazon Web Services powers robotic startup’s effort to keep essential businesses
clean
Brain Corp, a robotics startup, has deployed autonomous floor scrubbers across
retail businesses, airports, hospitals, and other spaces requiring frequent
cleanings. The fleet of robots perform more than 8,000 hours of cleaning each
day. Brain Corp recently announced it is donating $1.6 million worth of
autonomous floor-cleaning robots and services, powered in part by AWS, so
essential businesses can use a cleaning robot free of charge during the crisis.
April 30
Updated work-from-home guidance
We continue to prioritize the health of our employees and follow local
government guidance. Amazon employees who work in a role that can be done
effectively from home are welcome to do so until at least October 2. We are
working hard and investing significant funds to keep those who choose to come to
the office safe through physical distancing, deep cleaning, temperature checks,
and the availability of face coverings and hand sanitizer.
Making masks available to Whole Foods Market customers nationwide
To help protect the safety and health of Whole Foods Market Team Members and
communities, we will be requesting customers wear masks in Whole Foods Market
stores. Within the next week, we will be offering free, disposable masks to all
Whole Foods Market customers nationwide when they arrive at the store to shop.
If customers don't already have their own face covering, they will be able to
pick up a mask at the entrance of the Whole Foods Market store. Details here.
Providing for customers and protecting employees
In the second quarter of 2020, Amazon expects to invest approximately $4 billion
on COVID-related expenses to get products to customers and keeping employees
safe. This includes investments in personal protective equipment, enhanced
cleaning of our facilities, less efficient process paths that better allow for
effective social distancing, higher wages for hourly teams, and developing our
own COVID-19 testing capabilities. In March and April, we announced hiring
plans, and have since hired 175,000 people in our fulfillment and delivery
network in response to increased customer demand and to assist existing
employees. Read more about our work to keep employees safe.
Delivering to first responders in California
Being able to support the communities where we live and work adds meaning and
purpose to our jobs, according to Kevin Murray a site manager at an AMZL
Delivery Station in the Bay Area. Recently, his team in San Francisco took time
to assemble and deliver 200 care packages to emergency service workers and first
responders. "Doing our jobs well isn't just about data and bottom lines," Murray
said, "Ultimately, it's about people and where we choose to spend our time and
energy."
Whole Foods Market expands reserved grocery pickup to at-risk shoppers
nationwide
To support the most vulnerable communities during this pandemic, we are
reserving the first hour of grocery pickup at Whole Foods Market stores
nationwide for customers 60 years and older, those with disabilities, and those
whom the CDC defines as high risk. Read details here and learn about other ways
we are helping grocery customers.
Amazon expands online use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits
Arizona, California, and Kentucky become the latest states to participate in the
U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot enabling Amazon customers to use SNAP
benefits to purchase groceries online. The pilot is already live in Alabama,
Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, and Washington. We are committed to
making food accessible through online shopping and we look forward to adding
more states soon. Read about the program.
How Amazon’s logistics network is helping the UK Government during the pandemic
Amazon is collaborating with the UK Government to deliver COVID‑19 test kits to
the homes of essential workers. We are waiving fees and providing this service
free of charge. “We believe our role serving customers and the community during
this time is a critical one, and we are committed to working closely with the
Government to identify ways in which we can support efforts to respond to the
crisis,” said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager at Amazon. Learn more and watch a
video here.
April 29
Amazon supports a nonprofit's initiative to fund artisans making masks for
frontline workers
As part of a new initiative called "give a mask, employ an artisan," the
nonprofit Nest will buy masks from its small business partners and donate them
to healthcare professionals and others doing critical work. Amazon's support
through this program will help artisans experiencing economic distress amid the
pandemic and ensure frontline workers have access to protective equipment.
Amazon Web Services powers a free database for COVID‑19 research and vaccine
development
Cerner, a global healthcare technology company, has compiled de-identified
patient data to help COVID‑19 researchers and has leveraged AWS to secure and
store the critical information. The data will support research, vaccine
development, and new treatment options—and it’s available for free, creating an
opportunity for organizations to share information and accelerate our
understanding of the disease. Get more details.
April 28
Amazon to invest more than $800 million on COVID-19 safety measures
Through the measures we worked rapidly to implement, we expect to spend more
than $800 million on COVID‑19 safety measures. This includes purchasing items
like masks, hand sanitizer, thermal cameras, thermometers, sanitizing wipes,
gloves, and additional handwashing stations, as well as using disinfectant
spraying in buildings, procuring COVID‑19 testing supplies, and hiring more
janitorial staff. Some specific numbers include:
* Deploying 100 million+ masks
* Adding 2,298 handwashing stations
* Adding 5,765+ janitorial staffers to our typical teams
* Deploying an additional 34 million gloves
* Adding 48 million ounces of hand sanitizer
* Adding 93 million sanitizing spray bottles and wipes
* Deploying more than 31,000 thermometers and 1,115+ thermal cameras
We’re also spending over $85 million redeploying team members from their typical
roles to perform safety related tasks and audits at sites around the world. This
includes team members who are “social distancing ambassadors” helping with
temperature checks. Read more about how we’re taking care of employees.
Meet an employee at the forefront of health and safety in an Amazon fulfillment
center
As a child, Heather Mayberry was wowed by paramedics and the work they do to
help people in their most difficult moments. It's what inspired her to
ultimately chose a career focused on keeping people safe and healthy. Today, as
an Amazon workplace health and safety manager in Phoenix (PHX6), she’s a part of
the team that’s implemented 150 process improvements since the start of the
pandemic. "My focus is doing everything I can to protect those who work at
Amazon, so we can all go home safely to our families each day," she said. Read
more.
Amazon donates $3.9 million to expand computer science education in Virginia
The Amazon Future Engineer donation includes virtual resources, training for
over 12,000 teachers and curriculum to students whose schools closed due to
COVID‑19. Amazon Future Engineer is a comprehensive childhood-to-career program
aimed at increasing access to computer science education for children and young
adults from underserved and underrepresented communities. More than 700 Virginia
schools that may otherwise lack access, training, or funding, will benefit from
the donation. Learn more.
A message for World Day for Safety and Health at Work from Heather MacDougall,
Amazon vice president of workplace health and safety
Throughout the COVID‑19 pandemic, our first question every day has been, "What
else can we do to protect employees, while keeping our operations running
smoothly for communities of customers and people in need?" Over 60 days, we’ve
made more than 150 major process changes and invested deeply to help ensure our
teams are safe and remain healthy at work. Read her full post on LinkedIn.
Amazon Web Services delivers remote learning for more than one million students
in Israel
Working with AWS, the Israel Ministry of Education collaborated with education
technology companies to provide learning services in Hebrew and Arabic for 1.8
million students. Find details here.
New features through Alexa and Amazon devices
We’ve added more experiences to make it easy to stay informed and entertained
amid COVID‑19.
* Ask Alexa to open the Mayo Clinic Answers on COVID‑19 skill for guidance on
symptoms, prevention, coping, treatment, and more.
* New and existing Fire TV and Fire tablet owners in the U.S. will receive a
complimentary one-year subscription to the Food Network Kitchen app. A
special “We Cook Together Weekend” on Food Network Kitchen this weekend (May
2, 3) will let you cook along with your favorite chefs from home.
April 27
Amazon Air made its first-ever stop in Shanghai to bring personal protective
equipment to U.S.
The aircraft picked up and transported personal protective equipment back to the
U.S. last week for health care organizations and others in need. Watch now.
Surprise gifts for a special class of 2020 from Amazon
Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection
Following the cancellation of the SXSW Conference and Festivals due to COVID‑19,
Amazon Prime Video and SXSW joined forces to launch a 10-day online film
festival that starts today (April 27) and runs through May 6 on Prime Video. A
collection of documentary and narrative features, short films, and episodic
titles from the 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup will be available to stream here
with or without an Amazon Prime membership. All that is needed is a free Amazon
account. Find the full lineup here.
April 26
Discover how customers are using Alexa during the COVID‑19 pandemic
Brighten someone’s day by sending your Alexa contacts a hug. To learn more, just
ask, “Alexa, how do I send a hug?" From Drop-In calls to dance tutorials, and
setting up a traffic light, see some of the ways customers are using Alexa in
their homes.
April 25
Whole Foods Market adds a grocery pickup option for customers age 60 and older
To support one of the most vulnerable communities during this pandemic, Whole
Foods Market is reserving the first hour of grocery pickup for shoppers 60 years
and older at stores in Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and Richmond, and we’ll expand
to all Whole Foods Market pickup locations nationwide in the coming weeks. Read
more about these updates and other ways we are helping grocery customers.
Amazon Web Services helps speed up the review of medical images
With support from AWS, Feedback Medical is scaling its software platform for
reviewing radiology images to address increased demand during the COVID‑19
pandemic. Feedback Medical, a Cambridge-based company focused on medical imaging
technology, is supplying its platform to all National Health Service providers
in the UK at no cost. Read more about how AWS customers and partners are seeking
solutions during the crisis.
April 24
Amazon transportation teams deliver personal protective equipment to hospitals
and clinics
Amazon continues to support local communities during the COVID-19 crisis. This
week, Amazon delivered personal protective equipment and supplies in support of
Get Us PPE in Chicago. We are using our Amazon trailers to pick up supplies at
Boston Scientific, transport them to delivery stations, and coordinate final
deliveries to hospitals and clinics.
Extending the hourly pay increase through mid-May
We’ve extended the increased pay ($2 per hour in the U.S., C$2 per hour in
Canada, and €2 per hour in many EU countries) for hourly employees through May
16. We are also extending double overtime pay in the U.S. and Canada. These
extensions increase our total investment in pay during COVID-19 to nearly $700
million for our hourly employees and partners. In addition, we are providing
flexibility with leave of absence options, including expanding the policy to
cover COVID-19 circumstances, such as high-risk individuals or school closures.
A show of support with rainbows on Amazon buildings
Discover why rainbows are showing up on windows, buildings, and sidewalks around
the world in this story.
Meet some of the Amazon employees who are supporting customers around the world
Bri Tye was looking for a temporary job when she joined Amazon. Today, she’s
risen through the ranks to become a general manager in Texas. Read more here
about the people behind the scenes who are helping customers get the products
they need.
Amazon donates devices around the world
Donations to Weill Cornell Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Rhode
Island Medical Society, Caritas, Arbeiterwohlfahrt, and Hephata Diakonie are the
latest in our $5 million commitment to team up with hospitals, schools, and
community organizations. We’re supplying Amazon Devices (Kindle, Fire tablets,
Echo, Fire TV, and more) to those in need amid COVID‑19. These devices help
connect elderly residents in care homes, hospital patients, and their families.
More details here.
Support in Amazon’s HQ cities
The ongoing COVID‑19 crisis has impacted communities across the U.S., including
the cities home to our two corporate headquarters: the Seattle region and
Arlington, Virginia. Learn about ways Amazon is supporting local businesses,
schools, and organizations during the pandemic here.
April 23
Amazon grants $2.5 million to Columbia University for COVID-19 study
Amazon has made a $2.5 million grant to fund research at Columbia University
Mailman School of Public Health into whether blood plasma from COVID‑19
survivors can prevent and treat COVID‑19 infections. The study is a critical
first step in understanding if plasma donated from COVID‑19 survivors can
provide effective preventative care for frontline healthcare workers and those
at high-risk of poor outcomes from the disease. Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of
Columbia’s Center for Infection and Immunity, is leading the study in
collaboration with colleagues. Read more here.
AWS powers new platform to assess social distancing trends
Built on Amazon Web Services, the Maryland Transportation Institute at the
University of Maryland has built an interactive analytics platform to help
public officials understand how social distancing behavior affects the spread of
COVID‑19, mobility, and local economies. The platform is run entirely on AWS,
and we donated AWS service credits and technical support to the project. Learn
more.
Amazon Live event to benefit Feeding America
Kellogg’s and Amazon Live will host “At Home Cooking,” a livestreamed
cook-a-thon to support Feeding America, today (Thursday) from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
ET. Fourteen chefs—including Padma Lakshmi, Emeril Lagasse, and Rocco
DiSpirito—will stream live from their kitchens, cooking meals with ingredients
commonly found in the pantry and answering viewers’ questions. Amazon Live and
Kellogg's are donating directly to Feeding America in conjunction with the
event. The stream is available to anyone in the U.S. via the Amazon Shopping App
on compatible Fire TV devices, and by visiting amazon.com/live.
April 22
Amazon Web Services powers the 2020 NFL Draft
The 2020 NFL Draft has gone completely remote amid COVID-19, and Amazon Web
Services (AWS) is one of the tech partners helping with the success of the
event. With AWS's networking, scalability, security, and compute capabilities,
we're ensuring that everyone watching—from a prospective player to a fan at
home—has a seamless experience throughout the three-day draft. Read more about
how AWS is collaborating with the NFL.
Amazon to deliver 6 million meals to underserved and vulnerable populations
Amazon is supporting food banks across the U.S. to donate delivery services of
shelf-stable groceries and pre-packaged foods to serve 6 million meals through
the end of June. Using our network of Amazon Flex drivers, Amazon has already
delivered 427,000 pounds of groceries, representing 336,000 meals, in Los
Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
We’re committed to expanding to 25 U.S. cities and international locations to
help those disproportionately impacted by COVID‑19. Read the full story here and
USA Today article here.
Amazon Music and Jack Johnson support COVID‑19 relief efforts in Hawaii
To mark the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, and in support of COVID‑19 relief
efforts, Amazon Music is teaming up with multi-platinum artist and
environmentalist Jack Johnson to present Kokua Festival 2020 – Live from Home.
Streaming Saturday, April 25th, the Kokua Festival will feature musical
performances as well as cooking lessons from some of state’s top chefs.
Donations from the festival will support environmental education in schools and
programs that promote food security and sustainable local food systems in
Hawaii. Fans can get ready for the festival with the Kokua 2020 Playlist, and
watch the show on Saturday via Amazon Music’s Twitch channel.
April 21
New entertainment choices with Amazon Devices
In addition to resources from Amazon Devices to keep you connected and informed,
here are three new entertainment options.
* Stream "Mondays with Michelle Obama" from the YouTube app on your Fire TV
every Monday through May 11.
* Sesame Street and Headspace launched a new meditation series for children.
Families with kids can watch Cookie Monster and Elmo on the YouTube app on
Fire TV.
* Amazon Live is also partnering with Kellogg's to host At Home Cooking, a
livestreamed cook-a-thon to support Feeding America, on Thursday, April 23
from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET. The stream is available to anyone in the U.S. via
the Amazon Shopping App on compatible Fire TV devices, and by visiting
amazon.com/live on Fire tablet, desktop, and mobile.
Amazon joins a coalition to support small businesses with educational content
and resources
As part of the new Stand for Small coalition, Amazon is providing resources to
small businesses navigating the impacts of COVID-19. This includes free use of
business applications such as Amazon Chime, Amazon WorkDocs, and Amazon
WorkSpaces, as well as free use of Amazon Web Services for 12 months using AWS
Free Tier. These tools will help small businesses use the cloud, communicate,
and collaborate. Amazon is also providing complimentary access to training and
educational tools from its Amazon Small Business Academy to help entrepreneurs
learn how to build their business online. Learn more about Amazon's small
business resources here.
How we’re protecting customers from price gouging
We’re working around the clock to provide the products and services people need.
This includes taking a number of important steps to keep prices fair and protect
our customers from the unethical—and, in some cases, illegal—practice of price
gouging. Read Vice President of Public Policy Brian Huseman’s op-ed in The
Tennessean.
Florida SNAP beneficiaries can now use benefits for Amazon grocery orders
In collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture, Amazon has
expanded its participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
(SNAP) Online Purchasing Pilot to Florida. The pilot enables customers to use
SNAP benefits for online grocery purchases and is already live in Alabama, Iowa,
Nebraska, New York, Oregon, and Washington. We are committed to making food
accessible through online shopping and we look forward to adding more states
soon. Read about the program.
April 20
Amazon donates 10,000 Fire 7 tablets to California students
Amazon joined a coalition of companies answering a call from California Governor
Gavin Newsom to help the state’s most vulnerable youth. Amazon is donating
10,000 Fire 7 tablets to the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation, a
non-profit supporting the state’s public education system, to help middle and
high school students with distance learning.
The story behind rainbows in windows around the world
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, children are displaying rainbows in their windows
and thanking essential workers who continue to do their jobs enabling many
people to stay home. See images and Amazon videos supporting the rainbow
movement here.
How one teacher is using free robotics coursework from Amazon Future Engineer
With schools closed, kitchens and living rooms are now classrooms in homes
across the country. Wyman Khuu is one of thousands of teachers determined to
make it work for his students. "I don't want the coronavirus gap to exist," said
Khuu. "My priority is to make remote learning feel like school so they can learn
the things they need to learn and continue getting the education they deserve."
Read the full story.
April 19
Alexa answers your questions about COVID-19
Alexa can now answer tens of thousands of questions related to COVID-19 in
countries around the world, and we are working to provide accurate and timely
information from official government and news sources globally. Read more here
about how to use Alexa and Amazon Devices to stay informed, connected, and
entertained.
April 18
AWS accelerates COVID-19 research for Jameel Institute at Imperial College
London
Experts at the Imperial College London and its Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for
Disease and Emergency Analytics are leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) to
provide public health agencies and governments with real-time data and models to
inform COVID-19 responses. With the help of AWS, researchers can quickly review
data from around the world to understand transmission and outbreak severity, as
well as the impact of different intervention methods. Read more about efforts
from AWS customers and partners.
Work-from-home tips from a manager with Amazon’s virtual customer service
program
Michelle Overturf is a military spouse with a home-based career. "Your job and
your home life all start to blend together,” she said. “So you need to find ways
to keep them separate.” Overturf shares advice here for maintaining work-life
harmony during the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 17
Amazon and Fred Hutchinson launch Covidwatch volunteer study
Amazon is collaborating with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center on a new
volunteer study announced today called Covidwatch. The study will investigate
infection rates, transmission times, and potential re-infections, while
providing data analysis to the broader scientific community. Amazon is providing
funding as well as technical expertise web hosting from AWS, and is working
closely with Fred Hutch’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease research team, who are
managing the study. Read more here.
Amazon donates masks to public health services in Europe
Over the past week, we have distributed millions of masks to all Amazon
associates, delivery service partners, Amazon Flex participants, and seasonal
employees, and we are encouraging everyone to use them. As a result, we’re now
deploying our logistics teams to deliver 700,000 masks to public health services
and other essential workers in eight countries around Europe. We’ll distribute
100,000 masks in the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Poland as well as
50,000 masks in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Any N-95 masks we receive
continue to be donated to healthcare workers on the front lines or made
available through Amazon Business to healthcare and government organizations at
cost. Read more here.
Stream songs from the “Singing Surgeon” on Amazon Music
Orthopedic surgery resident Dr. Elvis Francois has always loved music and
connects with patients through songs. Now, he’s released “Music Is Medicine”,
recorded with pianist and fellow resident Dr. William Robinson to benefit The
Center of Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund. The songs are available
on streaming services, including on Amazon Music. Listeners can say, "Alexa,
play the Singing Surgeon" in the Amazon Music app and on Alexa-enabled devices
to hear him sing. Dr. Francois is releasing this music to offer comfort to those
looking for solace in these difficult times, and is raising money to help his
colleagues in the field.
April 16
Their work helps millions stay home
The people who work in Amazon's operations network are making sure customers can
get what they need while the pandemic makes sheltering in place a matter of both
personal and public health. Meet some of the Amazonians who are stepping up
during these unprecedented times.
Katie Smith joined Amazon in March after being laid off from her job in the food
industry. Now she helps manage inventory as it comes into the fulfillment center
in Robbinsville, New Jersey. She said she's reassured by the safety procedures
at Amazon. "When you walk in, they take your temperature. And they're passing
out masks for us at the front door."
AWS helps educational institutions quickly transition to remote learning
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and members of its Partner Network are supporting
schools across the world transition to online learning amid COVID-19. AWS
partners like Blackboard, Canvas by Instructure, and others, provide a variety
of education technology (EdTech) resources, and AWS solutions architects and
experts are available virtually to help establish remote learning environments,
consult on the best virtual resources for each school’s unique needs, and
provide technical guidance. AWS is also working with EdTech companies to provide
infrastructure for education ministries, colleges, and schools in Italy, India,
Egypt, Brazil, and elsewhere, to quickly deploy remote-learning platforms. Read
more about efforts from AWS customers and partners.
An Amazon general manager shares his thoughts on “doing something so much
greater than oneself”
Amazon publishes annual letter to shareholders from Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO
Read the letter here.
April 15
Amazon encourages U.S. residents to participate in short study to help public
health organizations
The Delphi Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University is running a short
survey to gather data about U.S. residents who are experiencing symptoms
consistent with COVID-19. This data will help the Delphi Group forecast COVID-19
hospitalizations to come, and will help guide the response of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local public health organizations.
Amazon is encouraging Americans interested in participating to complete a brief,
two-minute survey about their symptoms. Participation is entirely voluntary and
no personal information will be collected by or shared with Amazon. Take the
survey.
Amazon continues to support communities around the world through device
donations
Amazon is donating $5 million in devices to support communities during the
COVID-19 pandemic. New efforts include:
* The Seattle Children's Hospital received Kindle Kids Edition devices and Fire
HD 8 tablets to help isolated patients and their families stay connected and
entertained while in treatment.
* Albero Della Vita—a non-profit organization based in Italy that fosters the
development of children, their families, and communities—received Fire HD 8
tablets so families in need can stay entertained and communicate with loved
ones while in isolation.
* The Seattle Storm, a professional basketball team based in Seattle, received
Echo Dot devices to give away to fans participating in the Seattle Storm
daily workout series, which encourages people to stay active while at home.
Fans can ask Alexa to set daily reminders to break a sweat with the Storm
Workout skill voiced by Sue Bird.
AWS helps streamline volunteer and community relief responses
Amazon Web Services helped Crisis Cleanup, a software platform, launch new
websites to streamline volunteer and community relief responses to COVID-19. The
websites enable relief groups to conduct wellness checks of elderly individuals
or those with a compromised immune system, and coordinate deliveries of food,
medicine, and pet supplies to those in need. Learn more.
April 14
Sarah Rhoads, VP, Amazon Global Air: We'll continue rising to the challenge of
COVID-19
Amazon supports Seattle-area rental assistance program
Amazon has provided $50,000 to support the expansion of the Home Base program,
which was originally designed to fight homelessness by preventing evictions and
will now provide rental assistance to King County households whose income has
been impacted by COVID-19. United Way of King County, City of Seattle, the
Seattle Foundation, and others have raised $5 million for the fund to help an
estimated 2,000 families. The Amazon donation helped meet this goal. Read more
about the Home Base program.
AWS customers and partners seek solutions during the COVID-19 crisis
Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers and partners around the world are helping in
the fight against COVID-19. Their efforts include accelerating research,
compiling COVID-19 data, scaling telehealth solutions, supporting the rapid
expansion of online learning to keep students engaged in their studies, and
more. Read the full story.
When scaling your workload is a matter of saving lives
In March, a group of volunteer professionals reached out to Werner Vogels,
Amazon CTO, about supporting a scenario planning tool that modeled the potential
impact of COVID-19. The group, led by former White House Chief Data Scientist DJ
Patil, needed to scale their model so governors across the US could understand
the volume of exposure, infection, and hospitalization to inform response plans.
In close partnership with AWS and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health, the group moved the model to the cloud, allowing them to run multiple
scenarios simultaneously and generate a full report in hours rather than a week.
Read the full story.
Prime Video adds selection of free content from HBO, CBSN, MLB, and the NBA
Prime Video is helping customers stay entertained while at home with a number of
new free content offerings available this week, including:
* More than 30 TV shows and movies from HBO including Big Little Lies,
McMillion$, Ballers, Silicon Valley, Succession, and more. These shows are
available now, for free, to Amazon customers in the US. To access this free
content from HBO, customers just need to sign into their Amazon Account—no
Prime membership required.
* CBSN, a 24-hour news channel from CBS News, is available for free on Prime
Video in the U.S. Anyone with an Amazon account can now access 24/7 news
coverage from CBS News through Prime Video. Like HBO, to access CBSN on Prime
Video, customers just need to sign into their Amazon Account—no Prime
membership required.
* The top 30 MLB games from 2019, as well as nearly 80 NBA Hardwood Classics,
are now available for Prime members in the U.S. looking to get their sports
fix while play is suspended.
An Amazon IT support technician for Amazon Air Cargo shares his experience in an
op-ed
As an Amazon employee for the past four years, Jeff Quinton writes, "I firmly
believe Amazon is working to provide safe job opportunities and plays a leading
role in helping communities across the country during this challenging time. The
team I work with is like a family to me and when things happen inside and
outside the workplace, management lets us know that we matter and they care
about us." Read his full story here.
Amazon helps Seattle students obtain resources and essential items
Amazon has given a $150,000 grant to the Alliance for Education's Right Now
Needs Fund to support Seattle Public Schools students and families experiencing
hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic. The donation includes flexible funding
and credits to shop online for eligible groceries, health products, and personal
care items sold on Amazon, which will be delivered directly to doorsteps. Amazon
created the Right Now Needs Fund in October 2018, with an initial $2 million
grant, to support all 104 public schools in Seattle. The fund provides staff and
community members with resources to address the urgent and basic needs of their
students. Learn more about the Right Now Needs Fund here.
April 13
Vice President Mike Pence acknowledges Amazon's hiring as "we face this pandemic
together."
Amazon hiring for additional 75,000 jobs; has brought on 100,000+ new associates
in the last four weeks
On March 16, we announced Amazon would invest over $350 million globally to
increase pay for our teams during the coronavirus pandemic and would hire an
additional 100,000 people in full and part-time jobs across our operations
network to keep as many people as possible working during this crisis. Today, we
are proud to announce that our original 100,000 jobs pledge is filled and those
new employees are working at sites across the U.S. helping to serve customers.
We continue to see increased demand as our teams support their communities, and
are going to continue to hire, creating an additional 75,000 jobs to help serve
customers during this unprecedented time. Interested candidates can apply at
www.amazon.com/jobsnow. We know many people have been economically impacted as
jobs in areas like hospitality, restaurants, and travel are lost or furloughed
as part of this crisis and we welcome anyone out of work to join us at Amazon
until things return to normal and their past employer is able to bring them
back. We also continue to invest in pay increases and previously expected to
spend $350 million to increase wages during this unprecedented time—we now
expect that to be nearly $700 million. We’ll continue to invest in safety, pay,
and benefits for our teams who are playing an invaluable role in getting items
to communities around the world, and you can read more about our safety efforts.
How Amazon is powering COVID-19 diagnostics of the future
Teresa Carlson, vice president for Amazon Web Services (AWS), spoke in-depth
with Forbes about the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative, a program to
support customers working on better, more accurate diagnostic solutions. The
piece highlights several AWS customers participating in the initiative,
including an up-close look at new research from the University of British
Columbia and Vancouver General Hospital on using CT scans to determine whether
patients have COVID-19. Read the full story.
Amazon supports computer science students with laptop donations and free online
resources
Amazon Future Engineer is helping high school computer science students in need
prepare for Advanced Placement (AP) exams through laptop donations and new free
online resources. With schools closed, students have to study and take AP tests,
which can provide college credit, at home. To help students navigate this
challenging situation, Amazon Future Engineer is donating 4,000 laptops and
making new online computer science resources, including exam prep, free. Amazon
Future Engineer is a childhood-to-career program inspiring and supporting
students from underserved and underrepresented communities to pursue computer
science. Learn more.
Amazon Music collaborates with H.E.R. to raise donations for the MusiCares
COVID-19 Relief Fund
Amazon Music will make a donation to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund for
every view of two-time Grammy Award winner H.E.R.'s Instagram Live Series, Girls
With Guitars (8 p.m. Eastern) up to a total of $30,000.
April 12
New ways we're getting groceries to customers during the COVID-19 crisis
Amazon and Whole Foods Market continue prioritizing the health and safety of
customers and employees, while also working to meet the unprecedented demand for
grocery delivery. We've expanded services, launched new features, and opened
stores in order to serve the dramatic increase in customer demand. Read more.
AWS and Salesforce help keep service agents safe and connected with customers
Salesforce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have teamed up to help organizations
stand up virtual contact centers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Going
virtual keeps service agents safe while allowing them to remain connected with
customers. Specifically, Amazon and Salesforce are offering Salesforce Care
customers credits for Amazon Connect, AWS' cloud-based contact center service.
Learn more.
April 11
AWS powers telemedicine platform to increase patient care during COVID-19
MyClinic365 is donating its telemedicine platform, which is powered by Amazon
Web Services (AWS), to doctors and allied healthcare professionals in Ireland
for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis. The platform provides services like
secure messaging, scheduling chatbots, automated prescription requests, and
video consultations, decreasing administrative tasks for healthcare
professionals so they can provide faster patient care.
An Amazon director of information technology shares work-from-home advice
Though Amazon corporate offices are closed around the world, new employees are
starting every week. Director of Information Technology Kellie Green, and her
team, invented a new process to onboard employees remotely and shares some of
the lessons they've learned about working from home along the way. Read more
about Green's insights.
April 10
Amazon delivers supplies to UW Medical Center and Seattle Children's Hospital
As part of our effort to support local communities during this difficult time,
Amazon delivered swabs for use in COVID-19 test kits to University of Washington
Medical Center and Seattle Children's Hospital. The swabs were part of a
shipment of medical supplies we ordered to help organizations fighting the
pandemic, and we will continue leveraging our operations network to deliver
critical materials to those who need it most.
Amazon donating $5 million in devices globally
Amazon is teaming up with hospitals, schools, and community organizations around
the globe to supply $5 million in Amazon Devices (Kindle, Fire tablets, Echo,
Fire TV, and more) to those impacted by COVID-19. The device donations will help
a variety of people who need support, including frontline healthcare workers who
need to safely communicate remotely with patients as well as kids who need
learning resources while schools and libraries are closed. Read more about our
ongoing device donations here. Learn more.
Amazon to welcome a virtual class of interns for Summer 2020
Amazon interns play a role in building the future for our customers, and this
summer, Amazon will host more than 8,000 interns around the world—the company's
largest intern class to date—offering an entirely virtual experience. Along with
the virtual curriculum, the internship will include mentorship with tenured
Amazonians, moderated group discussions, opportunities to connect with other
interns, weekly fireside chats with senior leaders, and a variety of networking
events. Tools like Amazon Chime will help interns connect with teammates,
mentors, managers, and other interns. Amazon Future Engineer will also welcome
its class of nearly 100 interns, virtually. These interns represent our first
ever Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship recipients and are each receiving
$40,000 from Amazon over the course of their four-year undergraduate experience
to pursue a computer science degree.
April 9
Amazon Spheres light up blue to support frontline workers
We illuminated The Spheres with blue light this evening in a show of support for
those on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. As part of the #MakeItBlue
campaign, buildings and landmarks across the U.S. are lighting up to draw
attention to those providing essential services for their communities.
Amazon supports a $10 million emergency initiative for artists and writers
Amazon Literary Partnership has joined a coalition of national arts grant makers
to create a $10 million initiative for U.S. artists and writers. Artist Relief
will support those struggling financially during the outbreak through grants and
serve as an ongoing informational resource. It will also co-launch a survey to
better identify and address the needs of artists during this difficult time.
Learn more.
Scalable testing for Coronavirus
As we’ve discussed on this blog before, Amazon is focused on protecting the
health and safety of our employees while continuing to serve people who need our
services more than ever. Our employees are heroes helping people get the
products they need delivered to their doorsteps, products they might not
otherwise be able to get while maintaining social distancing. Read details.
AWS makes critical COVID-19 data publicly available
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has created a public source for critical COVID-19 data
to aid ongoing research. The data lake, which compiles datasets from multiple
sources, will help healthcare workers, medical researchers, scientists, and
public health officials working to understand and fight the novel coronavirus
and COVID-19. The data lake includes information from Johns Hopkins University,
The New York Times, Definitive Healthcare, and the Allen Institute for AI. AWS
will add to this data lake as other reliable sources make their information
available. Learn more here.
April 8
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos visits an Amazon fulfillment center and Whole
Foods Market store to thank employees
Masks have been delivered across the Amazon operations network
The millions of masks we ordered weeks ago have been distributed across our
network. They are available to all Amazon associates, delivery service partners,
Amazon Flex participants, seasonal employees and Whole Foods Market stores
employees, and we are encouraging everyone to take and use them.
Supporting hospital staff and patients through device donations
Amazon Devices is helping healthcare organizations on the front lines through
device donations. Here are a few examples:
* Northwell Health, one of the leading, non-profit healthcare systems in New
York, received Echo Show devices to help staff communicate with patients in
isolation, reducing the need for staff to enter patient rooms and conserving
personal protective equipment.
* University of California, San Francisco hospitals received Fire HD 8 tablets
to help medical professionals communicate with patients remotely, and
patients can also use the tablets to communicate with family and friends
while in isolation.
* The Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation received Fire 7 tablets and Fire 7 Kids
Edition tablets for patients in isolation and families to use at Beaumont
Hospital, Royal Oak campus in Michigan.
Highlighting a fulfillment center general manager
MSNBC featured Richard Hanna, general manager at an Amazon facility in Fall
River, Massachusetts, in its hero-of-the-day segment. The video shows how Hanna
his team are fulfilling essential services during the pandemic. Watch the
segment.
See safety measures in our fulfillment centers
Giving our customers more time to return items
We're temporarily extending return windows in light of the ongoing global health
crisis. Most items ordered through Amazon or seller partners in the U.S. and
Canada between March 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020, can now be returned until May
31, 2020. For more about customer orders and deliveries, click here.
April 7
"Alexa, how do I make a face mask?"
We're continuing to add new Alexa skills and experiences to keep you informed.
Just ask, "Alexa, how do I make a face mask?" to hear the Center for Disease
Control's recommendation for making a face covering at home with a bandana,
coffee filter, scissors, and two rubber bands. Alexa provides step-by-step
instructions. Also, here are more ways to use Alexa to stay informed and
connected.
Fleabag theater production on Prime Video will benefit COVID-19 charities
Beginning April 10, U.S. and UK customers can stream the theater production of
Fleabag on Amazon Prime Video to benefit charities supporting those impacted by
COVID-19. Phoebe Waller-Bridge created and wrote the production, which inspired
the award-winning series from Amazon Studios. All proceeds generated from
streaming the production will go to organizations like The National Emergencies
Trust, NHS Charities Together, Acting For Others, and the newly launched Fleabag
support fund, which will distribute grants to UK theatre industry affected by
the crisis.
Amazon is piloting new health and safety measure for employees
We continue to explore even more preventative measures to support the health and
safety of employees, who are providing a critical service in our communities. We
are piloting disinfectant fogging, a practice commonly used by hospitals and
airlines to supplement the enhanced cleaning measures that are already in place.
We've also rolled out mandatory social distancing, temperature checks, and masks
for everyone to use from arrival through shift departure, as we remain committed
to keeping our teams healthy and safe.
AWS supports nonprofit effort to deploy one million volunteer health workers
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is supporting a new initiative from Volunteer Surge, a
nonprofit consortium, to recruit, train, and deploy one million volunteer health
workers. These volunteers will help address surging healthcare needs during the
COVID-19 pandemic. AWS is powering the consortium's online training platform
through its cloud computing services. Read more.
Amazon donates devices and funds to a Houston nursing facility
Amazon Music collaborated with hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion to make a
monetary donation to a nursing home in the artist's hometown of Houston, Texas.
Amazon Devices also provided nursing home residents with Fire 7 tablets to help
them stay connected with their family members.
April 6
Amazon Prime Video and Twitch to stream charity concert on April 18
Amazon Prime Video and Twitch, an Amazon subsidiary, will stream One World:
Together At Home, a charity concert benefiting healthcare workers, on April 18.
Global Citizen, a group dedicated to ending extreme poverty, organized the
concert in partnership with the World Health Organization and the United
Nations. The concert will include performances from Billie Eilish, Elton John,
and Paul McCartney among others, and will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy
Kimmel, and Stephen Colbert. For more information visit Global Citizen.
Amazon donates 8,200 laptops to Seattle Public Schools
Amazon is donating 8,200 laptops, a gift valued at over $2 million, to
Washington's largest school district. This donation will help ensure all Seattle
Public Schools (SPS) students have access to a device so they can participate in
online learning. The district will prioritize distribution of laptops to
elementary students who do not have access to a device at home. "Amazon's gift
comes at a crucial time for our students," said SPS Superintendent Denise
Juneau. Read the full story here.
April 5
Getting millions of masks to our employees
The millions of masks Amazon ordered weeks ago are now arriving, and we're
distributing them to our teams as quickly as possible. Amazon Air flights are
currently transporting masks across the country to ensure all sites in our
operations network have them by early this week. Any N-95 masks we receive we
are either donating to healthcare workers on the front lines or making them
available through Amazon Business to healthcare and government organizations at
cost. For more information, read what SVP of Worldwide Operations Dave Clark
wrote in his recent update on how we're protecting our employees.
Meet a few of the 100,000 newly-hired Amazon associates
The Amazon fulfillment center in Dallas, Texas is a sizable departure from Darby
Griffin's preschool classroom where she's taught for the past three years. With
school closed during the outbreak, she recently started working at Amazon
helping manage new inventory. "It was a surreal moment after I got my badge and
I walked into the building," she said. "It suddenly hit me that I was moving
into a new chapter of my life. I've only ever worked with kids, so this was a
big change." Read Darby's story.
How free content from Amazon makes time at home more educational and enjoyable
To help parents keep kids entertained and inspire learning, Amazon has opened
its family-centric programming to all customers, no Amazon Prime subscription
needed. See how one family is finding respite in a wide variety of free books,
apps, and show.
April 4
Amazon expands USDA SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot
We're committed to making food accessible through online shopping, especially as
millions are being encouraged to stay home. As part of our partnership with the
United States Department of Agriculture, we've expanded the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Online Purchasing Pilot to Alabama and
Nebraska. The pilot, which allows customers to use SNAP benefits for online
grocery purchases, is already live in New York, Washington, Oregon, and Iowa,
and we look forward to adding more states soon. You can read about the program
here.
"Alexa, give me tips for cleaning" and more new features available for customers
New Alexa features include: tips for cleaning and disinfecting surfaces around
your home, voice donations to the United Nations Foundation, and special store
hours. Click here for details. Also, Prime Video and SXSW are launching a 10-day
online film festival in late April that will be available on Fire TV, Fire
tablet, and Echo Show. Read more here.
April 3
AWS supports White House effort to increase access to digital health services
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Consumer Technology
Association, and American Telemedicine Association launched
TechHealthDirectory.com, a new website featuring a growing list of digital
health resources—from remote monitoring to telemedicine. The website is hosted
on Amazon Web Services' cloud infrastructure, and we are proud to help ensure
health care professionals around the world have access to this important
resource during the COVID-19 pandemic. More information can be found here.
Elle UK highlights Amazon Flex Driver for her essential service during the
pandemic
Shortly before London was given a stay-at-home order, Hannah Pratt became an
Amazon Flex driver to earn additional income to supplement her personal
business. Elle UK has now featured Pratt for her critical role delivering
essential grocery and hygiene items to customers staying at home. Of her job
delivering critical items, Pratt said, "When you do see a self-isolating sign,
it reminds you how real it is. It's those moments when you think, 'You really do
need me.' It makes me feel like I'm being helpful." Read the full story here.
Amazon will match donations 2-to-1 for Mary's Place, a nonprofit fighting
homelessness in the Seattle area
During the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofit organizations are more important than
ever. Right now, our partners at Mary's Place – a nonprofit that supports women,
children, and families on their journey out of homelessness in the Seattle area
– are serving more meals and purchasing extra medical supplies and equipment to
keep families and staff safe and healthy. To further support Mary's Place,
Amazon will match all donations to the nonprofit, up to $1 million, and will
match gifts of $500 or more 2-to-1 from now through May 6. Click here to donate
to Mary's Place for the Amazon match, and read more here about Amazon's ongoing
relationship with Mary's Place.
Amazon contributes to a new country music fund supporting musicians facing
financial hardship
Amazon Music is contributing to the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Lifting Lives
COVID-19 Response Fund, supporting musicians and music industry professionals
suffering financially due to the pandemic. With cancelled shows and venues
shutting down, many in the industry are facing uncertain futures. Details about
the fund will be announced during an ACM special airing Sunday night, April 5 on
CBS, with a pre-show event on Amazon Music's Twitch channel.
Amazon donates €21 million to relief organizations across Europe
In Europe, Amazon has committed €21 million (almost $23 million USD) to support
those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Red Cross organizations in the UK,
Germany, France, and Spain, as well as the Civil Protection Department in Italy,
will receive donations totaling €12.5 million. Each of these countries will also
receive €1 million to donate to local nonprofit organizations in communities
where Amazon employees live and work. Nonprofits in Poland, Turkey, the
Netherlands, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Austria will also receive donations
totaling €3.5 million. These donations are in addition to existing work Amazon
and its employees have been doing across Europe. Read more here.
April 2
Response to recent events
The world is facing an unprecedented event right now: a combined public health
and economic crisis. With much of the population on lockdown in the countries
where we operate, Amazon is proud to be one of the companies able to fill the
essential needs of our communities during this challenging time. With the social
distancing required to fight COVID-19, delivering items directly to someone's
door has never been more important, and our employees are serving as lifelines
to tens of millions of people in this crisis. Read more from Dave Clark, SVP
Worldwide Operations.
$100 million gift from Amazon CEO and founder to Feeding America
Today, to support those depending on our nation's foodbanks, Jeff Bezos made a
$100 million gift to Feeding America—the largest U.S. nonprofit focused on food
security. Feeding America will distribute the funds to their national network of
food banks and food pantries, helping those in need.
Update on how we're protecting employees
To date, we've made over 150 significant process changes to ensure the health
and safety of our Amazon teams. The complete rollout of temperature checks
across our entire U.S. and European operations network and Whole Foods Market
stores is expected by early next week, at which point we will be testing
hundreds of thousands of people daily. Read details in this message from Dave
Clark, Senior Vice President of Amazon Worldwide Operations.
Supporting teachers' virtual classes with no-cost resources
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Educate is mobilizing its vast network of educators
who have experience teaching online. Starting April 6, webinars on a variety of
remote learning topics will be available at no cost. Read the full story here.
April 1
Amazon donates Kindle Kids Edition devices
Amazon Devices & Services is donating devices to communities impacted by
COVID-19. This week, Amazon provided 7th graders at Rainier Prep school in
Seattle with Kindle Kids Edition devices and WiFi hot spots so they can easily
access books while school is out and libraries are closed. Rainier Prep is one
of Washington's first charter schools, committed to college and career readiness
for low income, students of color and immigrant students.
Work-from-home guidance
On April 1, we recommended that corporate office employees who work in a role
that can be done from home should do so through April 24. We updated this
recommendation on April 14, and here is the new guidance: As the situation
continues to stabilize in communities around the world, Amazon will localize
work from home guidance beyond April 24 to follow local government orders and
dates, which will vary by location. When local governments say it is okay to
return to the office and after we implement any unique government-issued
requirements, Amazon will provide teams with options to gradually return to
their office or to continue working from home.
AWS Public Sector Partners address COVID-19 challenges around the world
Public Sector Partners within the AWS Partner Network (APN) have stepped up to
support communities during the ongoing global health crisis. In Latin America,
Whyline is using artificial intelligence to reduce overcrowding and congestion
in hospitals by allowing patients to view wait times and join the queue
remotely. And in Chile, CloudHesive has used their technology to help the
government reduce travelers waiting in airports to minimize exposure. In Italy,
radiologists are using Exprivia II, a cloud-based system that applies machine
learning to medical imaging, to track the spread of the new virus. To learn more
about APN Partners collaborating with public sector organizations around the
world, visit the Public Sector blog.
Seattle-based COVID-19 Response Fund distributes $10 million in grants
Amazon contributed $1 million to help launch the Seattle Foundation's COVID-19
Response Fund in early March. Since then, contributions from other corporations
and individuals have resulted in a $15 million COVID-19 Response Fund. Recently,
the Seattle Foundation distributed $10 million in grants from the fund to
community-based organizations that are responding to the immediate needs of
vulnerable workers and families in the Puget Sound region. So far, 128
nonprofits have received funds to bolster frontline responses to the pandemic.
Read the update here.
March 31
New content options for Alexa and Amazon Devices, and new routines for staying
home
A few new developments include: Amazon Devices is participating in the World
Health Organization's #PlayApartTogether campaign; we're enabling customers to
access even more free digital books and stream hundreds of SiriusXM channels for
free on Alexa-enabled devices through May 15; and Alexa can now help you adjust
to your new schedule with two new routines – "Stay at Home" and "Work from
Home." The "Stay at Home" routine notifies you to grab lunch and plan dinner,
for example, while "Work from Home" tells you when it's time to get up and
stretch, or wrap up for the day. Each routine can be easily enabled through the
Alexa app. To learn about all the ways that Alexa and Amazon Devices are
supporting customers during COVID-19, click here.
Twitch Stream Aid raises more than $2.7 million for COVID-19 relief fund
Twitch Stream Aid, a charity livestream hosted by Amazon subsidiary Twitch,
raised more than $2.7 million for COVID-19 relief efforts. The livestream, which
took place March 28, brought together gaming, music, sports, and entertainment
personalities to encourage the global effort to stay home and drive donations.
Funds benefited the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health
Organization, powered by the United Nations Foundation. Donations can still be
made here.
A look at our health and safety measures for grocery employees and customers
We are working quickly to deliver groceries and essential items to customers as
fast as possible through Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh, and Prime Now. We're
also prioritizing the health and safety of our employees and customers, and
we've put in place enhanced cleanliness and sanitation efforts. See the photos
below of our grocery employees, and read more.
"Alexa, what do I do if I think I have COVID-19?"
We're working hard to ensure Alexa is as helpful as possible during the COVID-19
crisis. We built a U.S. experience that lets you use Alexa to check your risk
level for COVID-19 at home. Ask, "Alexa, what do I do if I think I have
COVID-19?" or "Alexa, what do I do if I think I have coronavirus?" She will ask
a series of questions and provide CDC guidance given your risk level and
symptoms. Read more.
March 30
Providing 73,000 meals to elderly and vulnerable residents in the Seattle area
Amazon is collaborating with local catering business Gourmondo to distribute
73,000 meals, over the course of a month, to 2,700 elderly and
medically-vulnerable residents in Seattle and King County during the COVID-19
outbreak. "Amazon is committed to supporting people in immediate need across the
globe and right here in King County—and right now it's more important than ever
we pay close attention to our most vulnerable neighbors," said John Schoettler,
Amazon vice president, Global Real Estate and Facilities. Read more.
Amazon grants over $5 million to 400 small businesses in Seattle
Amazon provided $5.5 million in relief to more than 400 small businesses through
cash grants and free rent as part of our Neighborhood Small Business Relief Fund
announced on March 10. These businesses support local jobs that are a critical
part of the Seattle and Puget Sound economy. Amazon's grants will help small
businesses confront their economic challenges right now. Learn more about early
recipients.
March 29
CNN interview with Jay Carney on Amazon's COVID-19 response
Amazon's SVP of Global Corporate Affairs discusses hiring and how the company is
addressing the pandemic. Watch here.
Health and safety measures from the global Amazon network
Amazonians all over the world have sent in images of the ways their facilities
are adapting to fight the spread of COVID-19. See below for snapshots that
capture everything from the enhanced cleaning protocols to the many visual
reminders of the need to practice social distancing. Read more here about how
Amazon prioritizes health and safety while fulfilling customer orders.
March 28
Amazon teams up with Lyft to help drivers find work
Amazon and Lyft are collaborating to reduce the hardships drivers are facing due
to a drop in using the ride-hailing service. Lyft is encouraging its drivers to
apply for roles in Amazon's fulfillment centers to support grocery and package
deliveries. Amazon is ramping up hiring by opening 100,000 new roles to support
people relying on Amazon's service in this stressful time. Read more.
Amazon Web Services-powered platform helps Boston Children's Hospital track the
spread of COVID-19
The Boston Children's Hospital Computational Epidemiology Lab recently launched
COVID Near You, a platform built on Amazon Web Services to track the spread of
COVID-19. It uses crowdsourced data to create map-based visualizations to help
citizens and public health agencies identify current and potential hotspots for
COVID-19. COVID Near You provides real-time reports of virus symptoms which can
augment traditional public health tracking and help citizens understand COVID-19
symptoms are occurring in their community. Learn more.
Amazon Web Services and Electronic Caregiver help healthcare providers assess
COVID-19 symptoms remotely
Amazon Lex is powering smart hub technology for Electronic Caregiver, a health
and safety monitoring device provider, to aid in the detection and treatment of
COVID-19. The technology allows healthcare professionals to monitor vitals, such
as a high temperature and flu-like symptoms, remotely through wearable devices.
If an elevated-temperature reading occurs, the technology triggers a voice
interaction between the healthcare provider with the wearable and the patient to
check symptoms and assess a COVID-19 risk score. The solution can also connect
to a physician-on-demand telehealth service to provide additional diagnosis and
order prescriptions remotely.
March 27
Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos discusses COVID-19 issues and logistics with
Washington Governor Jay Inslee
Amazon UK supports NHS initiative to increase COVID-19 testing capacity
We are joining a coalition of UK companies, universities, and research
institutions to boost testing capacity for COVID-19. Our logistics network,
along with Royal Mail, will deliver test kits to critical workers and diagnostic
sites set up around the UK. National Health Service (NHS) staff on the
frontlines of the pandemic will be among the first to benefit from the increased
testing capacity. Find out more here.
Amazon donates over £3M to relief organizations in the UK
Amazon today committed £3.2 million ($3.9M USD) to organizations supporting
those most affected by the COVID-19 crisis in the UK, including the British Red
Cross and local intuitions in communities where our employees live and work.
This donation is part of Amazon's broader ongoing efforts to support customers,
employees, and communities in the UK and around the world. Read more.
Amazon Web Services collaborates with Conduent to help government agencies scale
COVID-19 responses
We are working with our Amazon Web Services (AWS) partner, Conduent (a business
process and services company), to empower federal, state, and local agencies to
better track COVID-19's spread and report on cases and potential exposures.
Conduent's disease surveillance and outbreak management platform – Maven
(powered by AWS) – can be quickly deployed by healthcare organizations so they
can begin performing "contact tracing" across entire regions securely and at
scale. In the U.S., Conduent is waiving the software license fee for the Maven
COVID-19 module through June 30, 2020, for qualified state and territorial
public health agencies to help them fight COVID-19.
A message from Dave Clark, SVP Amazon World Wide Operations: Thank You Amazon
Heroes
To all of our Amazon heroes on the floor, in the air, or behind the wheel—thank
you.
Thank You Amazon Heroes
How to use Alexa and Amazon Devices to stay informed and connected
We want to do everything we can to support customers during these unprecedented
times and our teams are working to make Alexa and Amazon Devices (Kindle, Fire
tablets, Echo, Fire TV, and more) even more helpful during the COVID-19
pandemic. Read more.
Providing Music and Amazon Devices to hospital patients
Amazon Music and Amazon Devices are working with Musicians On Call to bring
streaming music to hospital patients, as part of the organization's Music
Pharmacy program. This program typically brings artists and volunteer musicians
into hospitals for acoustic performances. While in-person visits are on hold due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, patients will be able to stream Amazon Music Unlimited
for free, on donated Fire 7 tablets.
March 26
In a teleconference with the World Health Organization, Amazon CEO and founder
Jeff Bezos discusses the ways Amazon is helping during the COVID-19 pandemic
Learn more.
Amazon Web Services supports the new White House COVID-19 High Performance
Computing Consortium
The White House launched the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium
to provide researchers with access to the most powerful high performance
computing resources to help stop the virus. As part of the Consortium, AWS is
offering research institutions and companies technical support and AWS service
credits to advance research on COVID-19 diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine
studies. Researchers and scientists working on time-critical projects can use
AWS to instantly access virtually unlimited infrastructure capacity, as well as
the latest technologies in compute, storage, and networking to accelerate
results. Researchers can find out more on how to get started here.
How Amazon is helping customers get groceries
We've seen a large increase in people shopping online for groceries through
Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, and wanted to share how we're supporting
our customers, caring for our teams, and expanding our deliveries with this
increased demand. We've introduced enhanced cleanliness protocols in all our
stores and facilities, social distancing guidelines for customers and employees,
and more. We're also increasing capacity for delivery and pick-up options for
Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, and working around the clock with suppliers
to get the items we know customers need back in stock. This is in addition to
the increased pay for our associates. Find out more here.
March 25
Amazon providing Seattle-area quarantine patients with more than 250,000
essential items
Amazon is donating more than 250,000 critical items to patients in quarantine or
recovering from COVID-19 across the Seattle area. Items include linens, towels,
shelf-stable food, Amazon Devices, entertainment items, and other supplies.
Amazon is also partnering with Bellevue LifeSpring, an organization providing
services to children and families, to help those in need obtain essential items
during the outbreak. Families in the Bellevue School District who can't reach
food pick-up sites can shop online for eligible groceries, health products, and
personal care items sold on Amazon and get them delivered directly to their
doorstep. Watch more.
Amazon Future Engineer is supporting teachers and parents with at-home resources
While students experience classroom disruptions across the U.S., Amazon Future
Engineer is providing access to a variety of free, online learning opportunities
during the pandemic. Amazon Future Engineer is a childhood-to-career program
aimed at increasing access to computer science education for children and adults
from underserved and underrepresented communities. Find out more here.
Amazon Web Services helps the World Health Organization accelerate COVID-19
research
We are working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) to accelerate
the effort to track the virus, understand its outbreak, and better contain its
spread. AWS is supplying WHO with advanced cloud technologies and technical
expertise. This includes building vast "data lakes" aggregating epidemiological
country data and rapidly translating medical training videos into different
languages.
Helping customers get involved with relief efforts
Customers can use Amazon.com to donate to charities helping those affected by
COVID-19, including Feeding America, American Red Cross, and Save the Children.
Find out more here, or just say, "Alexa, make a donation to Feeding America
COVID-19 Response."
March 24
How Amazon prioritizes health and safety while fulfilling customer orders
Now more than ever, Amazon's fulfillment, delivery, and physical store networks
play a critical role in serving customers. In these unprecedented times, we
remain committed to the health and safety of our employees, partners, and
customers. Read more.
Amazonians contribute to All In Seattle
Amazonians have joined Seattle community members to raise $27 million to help
fund local nonprofits and charities through the All in Seattle initiative. Find
out more.
Amazon supports the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund to help musicians
Amazon Music is contributing to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund to support
music industry workers in need. MusiCares is the Recording Academy's charitable
foundation, and its COVID-19 Relief Fund will support those affected by the
unprecedented cancellation of music events and work opportunities during the
pandemic. Read more.
March 23
We're vigorously combating price gouging
Amazon is taking important steps to keep prices fair and protect our customers
from those exploiting the current crisis through price gouging. We have zero
tolerance for this harmful practice and longstanding policies and systems to
protect our customers. Find out what we're doing.
Amazon Care provides infrastructure and logistics support to the Seattle
Coronavirus Assessment Network
The Amazon Care team is providing specially-trained couriers to help deliver and
pick up swab kits to people in the greater Seattle region who qualify for a
study led by Public Health – Seattle & King County. The Seattle Coronavirus
Assessment Network (SCAN) is a group of medical, public health, and research
organizations working together to understand the spread of COVID-19 in the
greater Seattle area. Responding to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 crisis is a
community effort that requires support from both the private and public sectors.
We are eager to leverage Amazon Care's infrastructure and logistics capabilities
to support this local effort. Learn more.
Interview with Jay Carney on Amazon's COVID-19 response
Amazon SVP of Global Corporate Affairs, Jay Carney, talks about our global
efforts to support communities during the pandemic, including hiring initiatives
and efforts to keep employees healthy. Here is a recent interview on CBS with
Gayle King.
March 21
A message to employees from our CEO and founder
Jeff Bezos sent the following email to all Amazon employees: "This isn't
business as usual, and it's a time of great stress and uncertainty. It's also a
moment in time when the work we're doing is its most critical. We've changed our
logistics, transportation, supply chain, purchasing, and third party seller
processes to prioritize stocking and delivering essential items like household
staples, sanitizers, baby formula, and medical supplies. We're providing a vital
service to people everywhere, especially to those, like the elderly, who are
most vulnerable. People are depending on us." Read the full email.
March 20
Launching the $20 million AWS Diagnostic Initiative to accelerate COVID-19
research
We are launching the AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative—a program to support
customers working on better, more accurate diagnostic solutions and promote
better collaboration across organizations solving similar problems. As part of
this, we are committing an initial investment of $20 million to accelerate
diagnostic research, innovation, and development to speed our collective
understanding and detection of COVID-19. The AWS Diagnostic Development
Initiative begins with participation from 35 global research institutions,
startups, and businesses focused on tackling this challenge. Full story.
March 18
Donating $1 million to support emergency response efforts in Washington, D.C.
Amazon has donated $1 million to kick-start emergency COVID-19 response efforts
in the Washington D.C. area. The funds will benefit the four largest foundations
supporting vulnerable populations impacted amid the pandemic—including hourly
workers, people experiencing homelessness, and the elderly. Amazon is also
providing cash and in-kind support to five food service providers in the region.
Full story.
Adjusting grocery store hours to help the most vulnerable
Whole Foods Market is temporarily adjusting store hours to accommodate those
most vulnerable to COVID-19. Customers who are age 60 and over in the U.S. and
Canada, and age 70 and over in the UK, are invited to shop beginning one hour
before the store opens to the general public under the new adjusted hours. We
are setting aside this time to help these customers feel more comfortable
shopping at our stores and get needed items in a less crowded environment.
Ongoing, enhanced cleaning in our physical stores
To help protect customers shopping in our physical retail stores, we've enhanced
our daily cleaning procedures and are implementing additional nightly cleanings.
We continue to educate employees on CDC guidance for maintaining healthy habits
and are offering flexibility for employees who need to stay home, plus paid time
off for those who are diagnosed with the virus.
March 17
Prioritizing essential items in our Operations network
As COVID-19 continues to spread, online shopping has increased, particularly for
essential goods. To address this need and help ensure the safety of our
associates, we've adjusted our logistics, transportation, supply chain,
purchasing, and third-party seller processes to prioritize stocking and
delivering higher-priority items. This will result in some of our delivery
promises being longer than usual.
Customers can help others through No-Rush Shipping
While customers can continue to buy any in-stock product in our store, those
ordering non-essential items can help others by choosing No-Rush Shipping when
available. Selecting the No-Rush option helps us serve customers with the most
critical needs first because we can consolidate more orders and make fewer stops
in neighborhoods throughout the week.
March 16
Hiring 100,000 people to help meet demand and support existing employees
We're hiring 100,000 new full and part-time employees across the U.S. in our
fulfillment centers and delivery network to meet the surge in demand from people
relying on Amazon's services during this stressful time. We encourage people
across the hospitality, restaurant, and travel industries who have been impacted
by the COVID-19 crisis to work with us until their previous employer can hire
them back. Learn more.
Increasing pay in the U.S., UK, Canada, and many EU countries
Our employees in fulfillment centers, transportation operations, stores or those
making deliveries are playing an essential role for customers during this
crisis. We are recognizing this amazing work with pay increases. Qualifying
employees will receive an additional $2 USD per hour in the U.S., C$2 per hour
in Canada, £2 per hour in the UK, and approximately €2 per hour in many EU
countries. Update April 24: We’ve extended the increased hourly pay outlined
below through May 16. We are also extending double overtime pay in the U.S. and
Canada. These extensions increase our total investment in pay during COVID-19 to
nearly $700 million for our hourly employees and partners. In addition, we are
providing flexibility with leave of absence options, including expanding the
policy to cover COVID-19 circumstances, such as high-risk individuals or school
closures. We continue to see heavy demand during this difficult time and the
team is doing incredible work for our customers and the community. Read more
about how we’re taking care of employees.
March 15
Customers can select unattended delivery options
Customers ordering delivery from Prime Now, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market
have the option to select "unattended delivery" during checkout if they prefer
not to come into contact with their delivery driver. Customers can specify the
drop-off location as part of the check-out process as well. Orders not
containing alcohol are eligible for unattended delivery.
Providing teachers and students with online STEM courses
Starting today, the Amazon Future Engineer program will provide free access to
computer science courses for students and teachers in the United States. These
courses are for independent learners from 6th to 12th grade or teachers working
remotely with this age group. Find this content and more on the Amazon Future
Engineer website.
March 11
Establishing the $25 million Amazon Relief Fund
We've established a $25 million Amazon Relief Fund to support our independent
delivery service partners and their drivers, Amazon Flex participants, and
seasonal employees under financial distress during the pandemic. All of these
groups can apply for grants equaling up to two weeks of pay if diagnosed with
COVID-19 or placed into quarantine. Read more.
Supporting employees affected by COVID with paid time off
All Amazon employees diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine will
receive up to two weeks of pay. This ensures employees have the time they need
to return to good health without the worry of lost income. This is in addition
to unlimited unpaid time off for all hourly employees through the end of April.
Full story.
March 10
New $5 million fund for small businesses in Amazon's Seattle neighborhood
We created a $5 million Neighborhood Small Business Relief Fund to help
Seattle-area small businesses during this economically challenging time. The
fund will support businesses with fewer than 50 employees or less than $7
million in annual revenue. To qualify for a grant, businesses should have a
physical presence within a few blocks of Amazon's Regrade or South Lake Union
offices, be open to the general public, and rely on foot traffic for customers.
Additionally, we are subsidizing two full months of rent for tenants in
Amazon-owned buildings. Full story.
March 9
Amazon donates $1 million to COVID-19 Response Fund
We've contributed $1 million to a COVID-19 Response Fund to rapidly deploy
resources to community-based organizations at the front lines of the Puget Sound
region's COVID-19 outbreak. The fund, which is hosted by the Seattle Foundation,
will provide flexible resources to nonprofits and community-based organizations
working with those disproportionately affected by the pandemic and the economic
consequences of the outbreak. Initial grants will support organizations helping
those without sick leave or health insurance, medically fragile individuals, and
healthcare workers. Full story.
March 6
Amazon employees recommended to work from home
In light of ongoing international COVID-19 developments, we now recommend all
employees who can work from home to do so. Employees and partners whose work
requires being in their workplace have access to all of their usual paid and
unpaid time-off benefits.We are continuing to pay all hourly staff who work for
service providers—from food-service workers to security guards to janitorial
staff—supporting our global offices around the world.
February 28
Taking action to protect our employees and communities
In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we've taken steps to protect the
health of our employees and communities. We've canceled large events, moved our
annual shareholders meeting online, and paused tours of our fulfillment centers
and headquarters. Additionally, we've transitioned to virtual job interviews
where possible and increased the frequency of cleaning for all facilities
globally, ensuring the regular sanitization of high-traffic surfaces like door
handles, stairway handrails, elevator buttons, lockers, and touch screens.
Get the latest information about Amazon's response to COVID-19 by bookmarking
this page, and by following @AmazonNews on Twitter. Leer en Español.
Related Tags
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Amazon’s COVID-19 vaccination and testing blog
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