At least five Amazon employees in three of the company's warehouses in Spain and Italy have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Bloomberg reports.
The three affected warehouses are reportedly remaining open, despite labor unions' calls for closures.
"We are giving our support to the employees that are currently in quarantine," Amazon said in an emailed statement about its three workers who tested positive in Spain, per Bloomberg. "The security and safety of our employees is our main concern, and we are following the directives of the local and international health authorities, and we have applied a series of preventative health measures in our centers across the world."
Additionally, amid uncertainty caused by the growing pandemic, Amazon is now offering two weeks of sick pay to its hourly workers diagnosed with COVID-19 or quarantined, and those workers are allowed to take unpaid time off through the end of March without facing termination.
The five cases are the first to be reported in Amazon's warehouses; previously, two employees in the company's Seattle offices were confirmed to have tested positive for COVID-19.