Amazon begins Covid-19 vaccinations for its front-line workers in India

The Jeff Bezos-led company is hosting on-site vaccination events run by licensed health care providers, at a few of its buildings in Delhi initially

E-commerce giant Amazon is taking its learnings from earlier on-site vaccination events for people above 45 years to bring Covid-19 vaccines to its front-line teams. Over the coming weeks, Amazon is hosting on-site vaccination events administered by licensed health care providers, at an initial set of its buildings in Delhi.

“Every employee is our priority,” said Amazon in a blog post. “We have started the vaccine event with those on the frontline, delivering to our customers and will continue to expand when vaccines become more available."

The Jeff Bezos-led company said this is an important initiative not only for the health and safety of Amazon employees but for the communities where its teams live and work. These events will protect Amazon employees while also helping ease the burden on community-run vaccination clinics.

“At Amazon India, we are encouraging all our employees to get vaccinated at the earliest possible opportunity,” said Amit Agarwal, senior vice president and country manager, Amazon India, in the blog post. “It is our endeavour to make vaccination a ready choice for our employees and we are working on several channels – reimbursement of vaccination costs, facilitating easy access to hospitals and on-site vaccination events to name a few.”

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon said the health and safety of its employees, customers, and partners have been its top priority. The firm has made close to hundred changes in its on-ground operations to maintain social distancing in its buildings and keep associates safe. Amazon said it adjusted practices within all its operations sites including fulfilment and sorting centres and delivery stations. This was done through new formats of communications, process changes, new training methods and several policy changes.

In April, Amazon India said it will cover the Covid-19 vaccine cost for more than a million people. This includes its India employees, associates and sellers with active listings since last year. It also includes the operations partner network of Delivery Service Partner associates, such as Amazon Flex drivers, I Have Space (IHS) store partners, trucking partners and their eligible dependents.