Between March 1 and Sept. 19, Amazon counted 19,816 presumed or confirmed Covid-19 cases across its roughly 1.37 million Amazon and Whole Foods Market front-line employees across the U.S. 

Amazon previously declined to share the data, saying it would be misleading and lacked context. In Thursday's blog post, Amazon said the total number of infections would be "more powerful" if other companies released similar data. "Wide availability of data would allow us to benchmark our progress and share best practices across businesses and industries," the company said.There have been at least eight confirmed Amazon worker Covid-19 deaths this year, but Amazon did not give an updated figure in its announcement Thursday.