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United Airlines reveals 3,000 employees are infected with COVID-19

Photo by: Miguel Ángel Sanz/Unsplash

United Airlines is cutting down flights as 3,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Then again, the air carrier's chief executive officer, Scott Kirby, stressed that so far, no one has been hospitalized among its workers who already received vaccines.

The reduction of flight schedules was made to make sure that all flights will have enough staff to attend to the passengers. This is also to ensure that the resources are available to take care of flyers as the omicron variant continues to negatively affect their operations.

According to Fox Business, it has reviewed a memo that was sent to United Airlines employees by CEO Kirby. He revealed that almost 3,000 employees are currently infected with COVID-19. But despite the drastic increase in sick calls, he said that none of them are in serious condition, and in fact, they are just recovering at home.

"In one day alone at Newark, nearly one-third of our workforce called out sick," the United Airline's chief was quoted as saying in the memo. "To those who are out sick or isolating, we wish you a speedy recovery.

United Airlines has a total of 85,300 workers as of Sept. 30, so it means the sick people are just a small percentage of the company's total workforce. The air carrier's spokesman declined to say how many flights are set to be cut. He did not disclose any other specifics for the reduced flight schedules as well.

As a consideration to all passengers and customers, United Airlines has been notifying them early to inform them about changes in flights and cancellations. This will also prevent them from coming to the airport when their flights are delayed.

Meanwhile, ABC News reported that one United staff died each week prior to the company's vaccine mandate. The company CEO acknowledged this and explained that before they had imposed the jab requirement, they were losing one employee on average per week.

"But we've now gone eight straight weeks with zero COVID-related deaths among our vaccinated employees based on United's prior experience," Kirby explained. "And the nationwide data related to COVID fatalities among the unvaccinated, that means there are approximately 8-10 United employees who are alive today because of our vaccine requirement."

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