(Reuters) – Amazon Inc. said on Thursday it would open a pop-up clinic at its Seattle headquarters on January 24 to vaccinate 2,000 eligible members of the public against COVID-19 on the first day.
Amazon’s senior vice president of global corporate affairs, Jay Carney, who announced the plan at a news conference with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, said a company executive will work with the Washington Vaccine Control Center.
The clinic will be hosted in partnership with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.
The move came a day after Reuters reported that Amazon had offered to help U.S. efforts involving the COVID-19 vaccine, citing a letter to President Joe Biden.
Currently, the state allows the vaccination of people aged 65 and over and people aged 50 and older living in a multi-generational household. It has not yet given doses for vaccinating warehouse employees, such as Amazon.
The company has more than 800,000 employees in the country and more than 19,000 American workers from Amazon contracted the virus in September, emphasizing the importance of the vaccine in keeping staff and operational warehouses safe.
Report by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur