Amazon Employee at Seattle Headquarters Tests Positive for Coronavirus

The outbreak of coronavirus continues in the Pacific Northwest, as now an Amazon employee at the company’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington State, has tested positive for COVID-19.

The news comes via an internal email obtained by GeekWire:

The employee went home sick on Tuesday, Feb. 25 and later tested positive for COVID-19. Amazon notified employees who came into close contact with the individual. The employee is based out of Amazon’s Brazil building at 400 9th Ave N, near downtown Seattle.

The email says “close contact is defined as being closer than 6 feet/2 meters over a prolonged period of time.”

Amazon confirmed the news by saying in a statement they are “supporting the affected employee who is in quarantine.”



To combat the spread of coronavirus for its over 50,000 employees in the Seattle region, Amazon is informing employees to stay home if they have symptoms related to COVID-19, while office sanitization has reached “enhanced deep cleaning” levels.

Coronavirus continues to spread in the Seattle region, with over 20 people testing positive and eight deaths related to the outbreak, as Washington State turns into the U.S. epicentre for COVID-19.

Earlier on Sunday, Amazon said two of its employees in Milan, Italy, tested positive for coronavirus. The company has told its employees to half “non-essential” travel within the U.S. and overseas. Other tech companies, including Apple, have implemented similar bans on international travel, to protect employees from getting coronavirus.