An Amazon employee is given a mask when entering a fulfillment center in Kent, Washington, before moving to the huge warehouse for package handling. (GeekWire File Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Amazon is expecting thousands of its employees to attend a COVID-19 vaccination event at the company’s fulfillment center in Kent, Washington on Monday.
It is the first on-site vaccination event for Amazon employees in Washington state. The tech giant has held events at fulfillment centers in Missouri, Nevada and Kansas, according to a blog post on March 25.
Amazon is working with several licensed healthcare providers to manage the recordings and registrations are still pending. The fulfillment center BF14 employs almost 3,000 people. According to Amazon, the event is also open to warehouse workers from the area.
“Our events will protect Amazon employees while helping to relieve the community-run vaccination clinics,” said Amazon.
Amazon advocated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back in December when vaccines were first introduced in the United States to get some of its employees serviced as quickly as possible. Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of global operations, said in a letter at the time that the company’s key people played a role in customer safety by enabling them to deliver critical products at home.
Clark sent another letter to newly elected President Joe Biden in January stating that the company was ready to “use its operations, information technology and communication skills and expertise to support the vaccination effort.” Clark reiterated that the front line workers at Amazon should get the vaccine as early as possible.
A nurse administers a COVID-19 vaccine that was shot dead at the Amazon Meeting Center in Seattle in January. (GeekWire file photo / Taylor Soper)
Later in January, Amazon turned its downtown Seattle convention center into a mass vaccination site for the general public. Amazon partnered with Virginia Mason on Jan. 24 for the first pop-up clinic that vaccinated 2,400 people.
The company announced this week that it is celebrating 50,000 doses administered at this HQ clinic.
Amazon will expand its on-site efforts to include more fulfillment center employees across the country as more vaccines become available.
The Monday event will take place from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Amazon BFI4, 21005 64th Ave. S., Kent, Washington, 98032.