Amazon announced on Thursday that 19,816 of its frontline U.S. employees at Amazon and Whole Foods have tested positive or have been presumed positive for COVID-19.

It sheds lights on how Amazon workforce has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon had repeatedly endured sharing comprehensive data with the public and with its own workers on the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Its warehouses have become crucial hubs for household supplies during the pandemic.

Despite many confirmed cases at Amazon warehouses in the country and across the globe, the retail e-giant has downplayed the importance of releasing site data. That makes it difficult to get a clear picture of overall infections at its sites.

The company said in a blog post that it did a thorough analysis of data on 1,372,000 Amazon and Whole Foods Market front-line employees in the United States employed at any time from Mar. 1 to Sept. 19.

Amazon noted that it compared its COVID-19 case rates to the general population using reported data from Johns Hopkins University during the same period.

The e-commerce giant claimed that the number of employees that tested positive or been presumed positive for COVID-19 was 42 percent.

It was lower than the expected number compared to the "general population rate" in the U.S., according to a report. Amazon declined to give a further breakdown of cases between Whole Foods and Amazon workers.

Dave Clark, Amazon senior vice president of global operations, earlier said that the number of cases "is not particularly useful" as it is relative to the size of the building and the overall community infection rate. But the company seems to be now having a different position on the matter.

Warehouse security has become a huge issue as Amazon's business started to expand more due to the restrictions brought by the pandemic.

Numerous attorneys general called on Amazon and Whole Foods to release a state-by-state breakdown of confirmed COVID-19 cases. They sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Whole Foods CEO John Mackley in May as a part of broader demands about the workers' health and safety.

Amazon has said that it has already taken several precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease. That includes making more than 150 "process changes" to its operations to improve safety.

Meanwhile, workers and advocacy groups have reached to crowdsource the number of cases to see the spread of the virus across Amazon facilities. It was done to fill the information gap.

The groups found that at least 10 deaths occurred among Amazon warehouse employees who tested positive for COVID-19.

Some workers at different Amazon and Whole Foods locations have held separate protests and walkouts in recent weeks over workplace conditions.

The data on coronavirus infections comes as Amazon prepares for its annual Prime Day sales event on Oct. 13-14, which marks a busy period for its workers doing delivery and processes.

Amazon earlier announced its plans to hire an additional 100,000 employees across its operations network.

In March, the company hired 100,000 new workers in a matter of weeks to meet increasing demand from customers.

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