Ilhan Omar and Bernie Sanders are demanding that Amazon come up with a safety plan for workers as online orders soar amid coronavirus

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

• Democratic lawmakers Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Bernie Sanders demanded that Amazon take steps to protect its warehouse workers in a letter published Friday.
• Amazon's US sales have skyrocketed amid the coronavirus outbreak. The company announced it would hire 100,000 new workers to handle the in
• Some Amazon warehouse workers don't have access to hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, according to a CNBC report Friday.
• Omar said in a tweet that Amazon is "putting the lives of workers at risk by exposing them to COVID-19."
• The lawmakers asked Jeff Bezos to specify how Amazon is disinfecting its warehouses, and what financial support it's providing workers.
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Democratic lawmakers are demanding answers from Amazon over how the company is providing for the safety of its workers amid the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Friday, Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Bernie Sanders asked the company to clarify whether it's providing its workers with basic sanitation supplies like hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes while on the job. The lawmakers also pressed for information about whether Amazon's warehouses are being reconfigured to align with CDC social distancing guidelines, which recommend that people remain six feet apart at all times.

Amazon has seen a spike in sales amid the coronavirus outbreak and said earlier this month that it plans to hire an additional 100,000 workers to meet the rise in demand. But sanitation supplies like hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes have run low at some warehouses, according to a CNBC report Friday.

Earlier this week, Amazon indefinitely shut down one of its warehouses in Kentucky after 3 workers tested positive for COVID-19.

"As reliance on your business grows, so do the demands on your employees, as do the risks they face personally," Omar and Sanders wrote in the letter to Bezos.

In an Instagram post on Sunday, Bezos told Amazon employees worldwide that "this isn't business as usual, and it's a time of great stress and uncertainty." Bezos added that the company had ramped up preventative health measures at its warehouses to increase the regularity of cleaning and enable social distancing.

An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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