Sources: Amazon has started replacing thermometers with thermal cameras at its US warehouses to speed up screening for workers with fevers
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has started to use thermal cameras at its warehouses to speed up screening for feverish workers who could be infected with the coronavirus, employees told Reuters. Tweets: @sushubh , @__anoop , and @frankeliason Tweets: @sushubh : ooh where did they order them from coz they are really really hard to find these days. https://twitter.com/... @__anoop : Amazon does not have a ‘lead’ on others.. It is on a different planet. https://twitter.com/... Frank Eliason / @frankeliason : The @amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville NJ had these thermal cameras last night to scan temps. Cool technology and fast https://www.reuters.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon's screening build-out has been escalating all month: on April 2 it committed to rolling out temperature checks and masks across its US and European warehouses, and this report shows the thermometer-based version already being swapped for thermal cameras at sites including the Robbinsville, NJ fulfillment center Frank Eliason described. The shift matters because manual temperature checks bottleneck shift starts at facilities employing thousands.
The camera move also sets up a procurement problem Reuters would surface days later: sources say the cameras came from Dahua, a Chinese company blacklisted by the US government, meaning the fastest available screening hardware carried geopolitical baggage. Meanwhile Amazon's parallel bet on biweekly testing of most US workers shows thermal screening is one layer of a broader health-infrastructure push.
First-order effects
- Warehouse workers at sites like Robbinsville move through entry screening faster, since cameras scan without a staffer aiming a thermometer at each person — directly addressing the shift-start delays created by the April temperature-check mandate.
Second-order effects
- Thermal cameras were already scarce — as one tweet in the coverage notes, they are 'really really hard to find' — so Amazon's bulk buying tightens supply for hospitals, other employers, and smaller warehouses racing to reopen safely.
- Rival large-scale employers face pressure to match camera-based screening or explain why their checks are slower, turning entry-line throughput into a visible labor-relations differentiator.
Third-order effects
- If pandemic-era screening hardens into standard warehouse infrastructure, employers gain a persistent worker-monitoring capability that outlives COVID-19, raising questions about where health screening ends and surveillance begins.
- Sourcing under shortage conditions pushes big buyers toward whatever hardware is available — including blacklisted vendors like Dahua — forcing companies to weigh screening speed against sanctions and reputational exposure.
The trend: Employer-run health screening is becoming permanent warehouse infrastructure, with procurement speed — not policy intent — determining which vendors, and which jurisdictions, supply it.