OREANDA-NEWS. Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, has begun building a coronavirus test lab as part of an effort to protect its employees from infection. The corresponding message on Thursday was published in the official blog of the company.

"We began to assemble the equipment that is needed to create our first laboratory, and we hope to start testing on the presence of coronavirus a small number of our front-line employees soon", the statement said.

Amazon, selling goods and services over the Internet, was founded in the United States in 1994 by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos. From selling books and records, the corporation gradually switched to the sale of video recordings, video games and consumer electronics, and was also the first in the United States to offer users of its website a paid movie download service with the ability to watch them without an Internet connection.

According to Johns Hopkins University, which makes calculations based on information from federal and local authorities, more than 465 thousand cases of coronavirus infection have been recorded in the United States. More than 16.6 thousand people died.