Home Deliveries during COVID-19

"[Just because the virus is] detectable [doesn't mean it necessarily poses a threat]."
"If you take basic precautions the danger from accepting a package from a delivery driver or takeout from a local restaurant or from buying groceries is de minimis."
Joseph G.Allan, assistant professor, exposure and assessment science, Harvard University

An Amazon delivery driver (not pictured) has tested positive for COVID-19. AP

"[Despite the company's ] expressions of support for its workforce [many Amazon employees insist the official messaging] doesn't always match what they have seen inside the company's warehouses."
"[They are concerned] about crowded hiring events and training sessions, limited access to disinfectant wipes, and the company's overall ability to follow through on its commitments."
CNN

Most retail establishments have now been identified as 'non-essential', and have been ordered by governments to close down for the time being, until the urgency over the novel coronavirus hurtling its threat against civil society everywhere has been brought under control. So while grocery stores, pharmacies and (unaccountably puzzling) liquor store outlets (in Ontario) are considered essential services, other retail dealers and outlets may only offer curbside pickup with online ordering.

Greater numbers of people are trying to switch over to ordering what they need in groceries and from pharmacies online to be delivered or for pickup at designated areas. The trouble is, as more people living lockdown conditions turn to eordering, supermarkets and other groups such as pet food stores (also considered non-essential) are experiencing difficulties catching up to the demand. If you're placing a food order and want to pick it up the same day, you find that pick-up spaces are blocked for the next month.

And then the public, already deeply concerned over their vulnerability to the epidemic where the highly contagious COVID-19 has been spreading, and hoping to evade capture by the little-understood zoonotic, continues to turn to deliveries from Amazon. In the current situation where small businesses are shuttering for good and large businesses appeal to government for financial assistance, the supply lines are being stretched to the limit.

Grocery chains are challenged to meet the needs of the public, a public which has reacted to the lockdown by fears of food shortages and shortages of disinfectant and toilet tissues, by emptying shelves. The supply model of 'just-in-time' warehousing and delivery was not designed for the current situation of panic buying and hoarding. Clearly, there is a dire need recognized to retool the model that has failed in this time of a coronavirus epidemic haunting the world.

While large corporations tremble in anticipation of being unable to weather this viral storm, there is one service that has the potential to grow faster than it might ever have dreamed of doing, even at a time when it was already a service-delivery success story, and that's Amazon. How well they've risen to the challenge, in face of the fact that drivers are themselves vulnerable to infection by the virus and then transmitting the virus to the public they serve, is a question not yet answered.

But for those customers who order through Amazon, yet quail at the thought of taking possession of a delivery package that just might be contaminated by the virus when they're concerned with reducing the potential of infection and worrying that Amazon delivery might pose as a direct danger, they would likely do best to relax about it because experts in the field claim such contamination to be highly unlikely. So, not the package, but the driver.

It is, in very fact, the drivers, exposed to a wide variety of people at doorstops delivering those packages who are at risk. The global pandemic has managed handily to upset entire universal applecarts. While Amazon has seen a huge  uptick in sales, their employees are less than gratified at the attention paid to their own state of health. In one area, employees were outraged that they were informed a week after one of the employees had been confirmed with COVID-19.

In this new world order where packaging and delivery play a vital new role, as people venture out of their homes with trepidation and care against infection, the new lifestyle imposed upon communities of social distancing and closed businesses require reliability of deliveries. Which places the public at an advantage, able to sequester at home, but employees of Amazon and other like conformations at higher risk of contracting COVID.

Amazon suggestions:

The first suggestion is to wipe down packages with disinfectant. Most deliveries coming from Amazon have two pieces of packaging--the product packaging, and the shipping container. Realistically, you should probably just remove your product from the shipping package, and dispose of that box immediately. 

Once you've done that, the surface of the inside package can be wiped down with a disinfectant wipe. Most products shipped by Amazon have likely been in a package for some time, meaning that the inside product probably isn't a super likely source of infection. Still, if you want to be extra careful, you can wipe that surface as well.

After you've disposed of the packaging, and wiped everything else down, wash your hands. This, by the way, is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of the virus anyway--meaning, you should be doing it anyway.

If that's not enough, another option is to leave the entire package outside, or, as Carney said, put it "in a remote location for a period of time." While it's not known exactly how long this particular virus can survive on cardboard packaging, in the long term it needs a host organism to survive and multiply. If it can survive on cardboard for only 24 hours, leaving it outside may kill it, allowing you to safely bring your package inside. 

If you have a garage, you can simply place the entire box outside, and leave it a few days. Then, to be safe, you can wipe down the inside package as described above.

Jason Aten, Inc.

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