Nick Beckett, another FedEx Ground driver based out of the Arcata warehouse, said in a message to the Outpost that he believes his work conditions are jeopardizing the health of the local community.

“I feel like package handlers are actually spreading this virus more than anyone,” he wrote. “Many of us package handlers are not happy that we have to do this and go to everyone’s home spreading this virus.”

FedEx directly employs more than 200,000 people in the U.S. and works with about 5,000 contractors, which the company calls “service providers,” according to NBC News. Those contractors, in turn, employ more than 100,000 workers like Escareño and Beckett.

Employees have tested positive for Covid-19 or been placed in quarantine in at least 15 Amazon locations in the U.S. used for storing, sorting or delivering packages, from California to New York, according to the company.

Maurice Baze, 38, said he believes he is putting his life at risk every time he delivers a package for Amazon in the Baltimore area. Mr. Baze said he is HIV-positive, and he is aware of warnings from health experts that those with compromised immune systems face the highest risks from the coronavirus.

Shoppers waiting for test results, or for whom their isolation orders don’t come from the requisite authorities are essentially both cleared to work, and shit out of luck in terms of receiving supplemental pay.

“There are people that are going to be put in a position where their only choice is to expose more people because they have to work,” Richey says.

“I drive a big delivery van, and I do the job, and it should be done professionally, cleanly, and safely for my customers,” said Telles, who also volunteers with the Gig Workers Collective. “Instacart unfortunately doesn’t have a business model that is set up to pay for that level of service, which is the only level of service people should be getting right now. Otherwise, they’re literally potentially killing people and families.”

Instacart, meanwhile, has framed the pandemic as a growth opportunity, pledging to hire 300,000 more “full-service shoppers” to meet increased demand — a move Telles called “reckless.”

“Bringing 300,000 more shoppers, untrained, unprotected, that are kind of desperate right now?

I think it’s reckless,” Telles told me. “And when they say 50,000 of them are going to New York and 30,000 California? Those are COVID-19 epicenters. Each one of us, myself included, are a potential vector or asymptomatic [carrier]. It’s a possibility, and we just can’t allow that.”

4. You're Getting Home Deliveries Home deliveries are less risky than a supermarket shopping however there is still a risk of possible contamination of the surface of any food or package or from the delivery driver. The best practice is to wipe over surfaces with simple diluted bleach which will inactivate the virus within seconds.

A Trader Joe’s worker in Scarsdale, N.Y., a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Md., and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes, in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday.