COVID-19 Outbreaks Take Over Amazon, Target and Costco Warehouses Across LA County
Samantha McDonald
Business Editor
Amazon, Target and Costco are among the retailers whose warehouses across Los Angeles County have been hit with a surge in COVID-19 infections in recent days as cases rise in the state and many parts of the country.
According to data from the Los Angeles County Health Department, the novel coronavirus has sickened hundreds of essential workers at a number of facilities operated by Amazon, Target, Costco and more retailers. The agency classifies three or more lab-confirmed cases as an outbreak.
Altogether, five Amazon facilities — DAX7 in South Gate, DLA3 in Commerce, DLA8 in Hawthorne, DLX9 in Culver City and DPS1 in El Monte — have seen a total of 205 infections, while five people have been confirmed as COVID-19 positive at an Amazon Bookstore in Los Cerritos.
In October, the e-commerce giant made headlines with its announcement that nearly 20,000 associates had either tested positive or been presumed positive for the novel coronavirus. At the time, it explained that it had conducted a “thorough analysis of data” on all of its 1,372,000 United States-based Amazon and Whole Foods Market frontline workers who were employed at any point from March 1 to Sept. 19.
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What’s more, in California’s most populous county, 11 Target facilities recorded 252 total coronavirus cases, while eight Costco facilities — including one of their business centers — reported 296 infections. Louis Vuitton’s manufacturing centers in Irwindale and San Dimas noted that 14 and 15 workers were sickened, respectively, while the Michael Kors distribution center in Whittier logged 80 infections.
As for stores, the JCPenney at Northridge Fashion Center had a total of 20 COVID-19 cases; Zara’s Glendale location saw three infections; and the Kohl’s outposts at Redondo Beach and Valencia have recorded 25 cases.
Since the outbreak touched down in the U.S., more than 21.4 million people in the country have been sickened by the virus, while at least 362,900 people have died. California is one of the hardest-hit states; it reported 2.5 million infections yesterday — a worrisome milestone as a new and more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been detected in the Golden State.
