It appears that we are facing a surge in COVID-19 cases, and in a number of states the stay at home restrictions are tightening because of it. AMS Fulfillment provides an essential service, so our employees are asked to leave home and do the order fulfillment work that is essential to the economy. Millions of people, staying at home, depend upon being able to order the products they need and have them delivered.
According to the Los Angeles Times, “…the stay-at-home restrictions that took hold at 11:59 p.m. Sunday (December 6th) across Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley will remain in place for at least three weeks, meaning those regions will not be able to emerge from the state’s latest stay-at-home order until Dec. 28 at the earliest.”
The surge has been attributed to family gatherings and travel during Thanksgiving. In an effort to give our employees peace of mind during this time, AMS has offered a rapid test to all of our employees where they can get tested and get their results back within 20 minutes. AMS has also purchased and offered to employees a home COVID-19 test kit so they can take the test at home, send it out themselves, and get the results back within 24 to 48 hours.
While there have been a small number of reported cases among our 400+ employees, at this time no employees have reported to us that their infection came from exposure at AMS. Rather, employees have in most cases pointed to family events or positive testing people living within their homes as their source of infection. We are encouraged by that and committed to continue and expand our efforts.
In our past safety blogs we have talked about the extensive adaptations that have been undertaken to keep our employees safe at work, and that effort continues daily. In response to the surge, we have increased the number of barriers in our warehouses to keep employees protected. We have also added more restrictions across all buildings, increasing the number of breaks and lunches to minimize the number of people gathering around the lunchroom area, and we have set up lunch and break areas outside the warehouses.
This is a very busy time for AMS, with seasonal employees coming in to help us meet the needs of clients. For that reason we are staying even more vigilant with masks, distancing, taking temperatures, sanitizing, and all of the other efforts to keep our employees safe while at work. We are very happy to give them some additional peace of mind with the rapid tests.
Click here to access the LA County recommendations for business