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NEW YORK ¡ª Amazon says nearly 20,000 of its workers have tested positive or been presumed positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.Amazon says in a corporate blog it examined data from March 1 to Sept. 19 for its 1.37 million workers at Amazon and Whole Foods Market.It said it compared COVID-19 case rates to the general population, as reported by Johns Hopkins University for the same period. Based on that analysis, if the rate among Amazon and Whole Foods employees were the same as it is for the general population, it estimated it would have seen 33,952 cases among its workforce.The company says it is conducting thousands of tests a day, which will grow to 50,000 tests a day across 650 sites by November.In their blog, Amazon said they provide paid quarantine for employees identified as coming into close contact with positive cases. They said in March, an average of roughly 3-to-4 employees needed to quarantine for each positive COVID-19 case. "Since then, our enhanced social distancing measures and video-based contact tracing across our sites have reduced that number to a fraction of a person being required to quarantine per confirmed case. This means that our employees are at a very low risk of transmission in the workplace," the company's blog stated. They also called on other major employers to release similar data. "Wide availability of data would allow us to benchmark our progress and share best practices across businesses and industries," Amazon stated, adding that there are no standards for reporting or sharing this data currently. Companies have no legal obligation to publicly reveal how many of their workers have contracted the virus, and few are doing so.However, employers must provide a safe working environment, which means they must alert staff if they might have been exposed to the virus, according to guidelines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They are obligated to keep track of COVID-19 infections contracted on the job, and must report to OSHA if there is a hospitalization or death related to the disease.A state-by-state breakdown from Amazon is here. 2137

NEW YORK (AP) ¡ª Organizers of a national workers strike say tens of thousands are set to walk off the job Monday morning in more than two dozen U.S. cities, to protest systemic racism and economic inequality that has only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. Dubbed the ¡°Strike for Black Lives,¡± essential workers such as nursing home employees, janitors and delivery men and women will join fast food, ride-share and airport workers in events targeting corporations and government leaders. Where work stoppages are not possible for a full day, participants will either picket during a lunch break or observe moments of silence to honor Black lives lost to police violence, organizers said.Strikers are demanding sweeping action by corporations and government to confront systemic racism and economic inequality that limits mobility and career advancement for many Black and Latino workers, who make up a disproportionate number of those earning less than a living wage.Major actions are expected in New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Los Angeles. 1076

NEW YORK (AP) ¡ª It's OK to eat some romaine lettuce again, U.S. health officials said. Just check the label.The Food and Drug Administration narrowed its blanket warning from last week, when it said people shouldn't eat any type of romaine because of an E. coli outbreak. The agency said Monday that romaine recently harvested in Arizona, Florida, Mexico and California's Imperial Valley is OK to eat. It says romaine from those places wasn't yet shipping when the illnesses began.It says the tainted romaine appears to have come from the Central Coast region of California.The produce industry agreed to start putting harvest dates and regions on labels. For romaine that doesn't come in packaging, grocers and retailers are being asked to post the information by the register.The FDA warned Americans not to eat romaine that isn't labeled with that information, and it said it had commitments from the industry that such labeling will become standard for romaine. It also noted hydroponically grown romaine and romaine grown in greenhouses isn't implicated in the outbreak.The labeling arrangement was worked out as the produce industry called on the FDA to quickly narrow the scope of its warning so it wouldn't have to waste freshly harvested romaine. An industry group said people can expect to start seeing labels as early as this week. It noted the labels are voluntary, and that it will monitor whether to expand the measure to other leafy greens and produce.Robert Whitaker, chief science officer of the Produce Marketing Association, said labeling for romaine could help limit the scope of future alerts and rebuild public trust after other outbreaks."Romaine as a category has had a year that's been unfortunate," Whitaker said.The FDA still hasn't identified a source of contamination in the latest outbreak. There have been no reported deaths, but health officials say 43 people in 12 states have been sickened. Twenty-two people in Canada were also sickened.Even though romaine from the Yuma, Arizona, region is not implicated in the current outbreak, it was blamed for an E. coli outbreak this spring that sickened more than 200 people and killed five. Contaminated irrigation water near a cattle lot was later identified as the likely source.Leafy greens were also blamed for an E. coli outbreak last year. U.S. investigators never specified which salad green might be to blame for those illnesses, which happened around the same time of year as the current outbreak. But officials in Canada identified romaine as a common source of illnesses there.The produce industry is aware the problem is recurring, said Jennifer McEntire of the United Fresh Produce Association."To have something repeat in this way, there simply must be some environmental source that persisted," she said. "The question now is, can we find it?"Growers and handlers in the region tightened food safety measures after the outbreak this spring, the industry says. Steps include expanding buffer zones between cattle lots and produce fields. But McEntire said it's not known for sure how the romaine became contaminated in the Yuma outbreak. Another possibility, she said, is that winds blew dust from the cattle lot onto produce.McEntire said the industry is considering multiple theories, including whether there is something about romaine that makes it more susceptible to contamination. Compared with iceberg lettuce, she noted its leaves are more open, thus exposing more surface area.Romaine harvesting just recently began shifting from the Central Coast growing regions in central and northern California to other regions. Since romaine has a shelf life of about 21 days, health officials said last week they believed contaminated romaine could still be on the market or in people's homes.Food poisoning outbreaks from leafy greens are not unusual. But after a 2006 outbreak linked to spinach, the produce industry took steps it believed would limit large scale outbreaks, said Timothy Lytton, a Georgia State University law professor. The outbreak linked to romaine earlier this year cast doubt on how effective the measures have been, he said.But Lytton also noted the inherent risk of produce, which is grown in open fields and eaten raw.The FDA said the produce industry also agreed to consider longer-term labeling options that would help identify and trace leafy greens.___The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. 4582

NOGALES, Ariz. -- Towns on the border of the United States and Mexico face a double-edged sword. International trade continues, with only small impacts from COVID-19. But these border towns are feeling a strain from the lack of visitors.¡°We thought 30 days, then we thought 60 days, then we thought 90 days,¡± Bruce Bracker said, reflecting on the past five months since a national emergency was declared over COVID-19.The town of Nogales, hugging the Mexico-Arizona border, historically sees plenty of visitors.¡°It was bustling to the point where if we needed to walk from one building to the other, you wouldn't walk on the sidewalk because it was too crowded,¡± Bracker explained. Bracker worked in the family business, a store near the border that opened in 1924. He said he worked there for about 30 years, before he said they had to close it.While the bustle has slowed over the decades, COVID-19 and non-essential travel bans halted foot traffic altogether.¡°Our customers are 95 percent from Mexico, so they closed the border. We can't do nothing,¡± business owner Frank Baek said. Baek had stopped by his store that day, even though the doors were closed to any possible customers.Very few stores on the main shopping stretch next to the border in Nogales were open.¡°Everybody is just kind of concerned and worried about how and when and if we¡¯re going to move forward past this,¡± Tim Carter, a manager at Oasis Cinema, said.Most tourism-based communities share the same sentiment. But what makes border towns unique is that they¡¯re also essential, thanks to international trade.¡°You saw a lot of people all over the country no longer go to work or work from home, in this community that didn't happen,¡± Jaime Chamberlain, president of Chamberlain Distributing, said. ¡°Almost all of our citizens were deemed essential workers because you had to...the food supply chain is so important.¡± Chamberlain Distributing works with farmers in Mexico, importing their crops and distributing to wholesalers, retailers, and foodservice.¡°We market and distribute that product for them in North America,¡± said Chamberlain, whose business may have slowed down a bit, but it never stopped.¡°As the rest of the United States slowed down, Nogales kept on doing exactly what we were doing before COVID,¡± he said. ¡°The efficient flow of trade is extremely important to this community.¡±Right now, his warehouse is pretty empty. Not because of demand, but because of the time in the season.¡°We've imported Mexican fruits and vegetables through here for over a century, so we feel a tremendous responsibility to our country...to have the available supply,¡± he said.That holds true for most border towns.¡°Major flows of products that are shipped or trucks and trains and cars, are still crossing and so that trade is down a little bit but not much,¡± said Robert Grosse, a professor of international business at Arizona State University.Grosse said we haven¡¯t seen anything on this scale since the short downturn with the financial crisis in 2008.As trade continues, Bracker and other business owners wait for the news that the border can reopen to non-essential travel as well.¡°It¡¯s going to be really interesting to see if there's a pent up demand or really what's going on,¡± Bracker said.¡°We¡¯re 22,000 people here in Nogales, Arizona, but on a daily basis our city grows between 50,000 and 55,000 people,¡± Chamberlain said.And it's the people that help fuel their economy. ¡°The majority of our sales tax comes from Mexican shoppers coming over to shop on the American side,¡± Chamberlain said. ¡°All of our budget is based on sales tax, the majority of it.¡± 3645

Next March, the monthly subscription price of Disney+ will increase by in the United States.During its annual Investors Day, Disney announced that beginning March 26, 2021, the monthly subscription price would cost .99. Its yearly subscription would increase by to .99.The Disney Bundle that includes Disney+, Hulu with ads, and ESPN+ would increase by to .99 per month, the company announced.The company also announced that in Europe, Disney+ would go from €6.99 to €8.99 per month, alongside the Star rollout, which debuts Feb. 23.The news comes after Netflix announced in October that they would raise the price on its standard and premium plans for its US subscribers. 698

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