Amazon Prime Day is launching in the United States and many countries around the world on June 21st, but the shopping event has been postponed in Canada. The company announced that due to COVID across Canada, they want to focus on the safety of their employees. “As we continued to monitor the impact of COVID-19 in Canada, we have decided to pause plans for Prime Day 2021 in Canada.” Amazon has not disclosed if the event is totally cancelled this year, or if will occur sometime in the future.
The cancellation this year is primarily due to many fulfillment centers being closed down. Peel’s public health unit has partially closed three Amazon fulfilment centers – two in Brampton, Ontario and one in Caledoa. The Canadian government is also reviewing six additional Amazon workplaces, to determine if closure is necessary.
All employees at the closed facilities will be required to self-isolate for 14 days unless they’ve tested positive in the last 90 days and have completed their isolation period, the health agency said. Some 20,000 Amazon employees had COVID-19 during the pandemic’s first six months, a rate of infection that Amazon said was less than would have been expected of an employer of its size, though some experts say the company provided insufficient data to evaluate that claim.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
