Coronavirus: Amazon ordered to pause all non-essential deliveries in France

Only food, hygiene and medical products will be available for online shoppers

Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York were sent home after one employee tested positive for coronavirus (REUTERS)

Amazon has been ordered to pause all non-essential deliveries in France while a coronavirus risk assessment is carried out across its operations.

The online retail giant will only be allowed to deliver food, hygiene and medical products while a health evaluation takes place, a court in Nanterre ruled.

A penalty fine of €1 million per day will be served to Amazon for every day that it is in breach of the order, which will be in place from Wednesday.

Unions in France have previously raised questions about conditions in fulfilment centres in the country. A recent recent report by The New York Times also found that 50 of the firm's 75 fulfilment centres in the US have had employees test positive for Covid-19.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent.

Demand for online deliveries has surged in recent weeks as billions of people around the world are forced to stay indoors as part of coronavirus containment measures.

On Monday, Amazon announced that it is hiring for 75,000 new jobs to meet the soaring demand, building on a jobs pledge last month of 100,000 new positions in the US.

"We know many people have been economically impacted as jobs in areas like hospitality, restaurants, and travel are lost or furloughed as part of the crisis, and we welcome anyone out of work to join us at Amazon until their past employer can bring them back," the company wrote in a blog post.

"We'll continue to invest in safety, pay, and benefits for our teams who are playing an invaluable role in getting items to communities around the world."