Amazon on Thursday unveiled a broad series of new measures to protect its employees during the coronavirus pandemic, amid loud and sustained criticism from employees, advocacy groups and lawmakers about the company's handling of the crisis.

As early as next week, temperature checks will be instituted across Amazon's entire US and European operations network, which include its warehouses and delivery centers, as well as Whole Foods grocery stores, according to Dave Clark, the head of worldwide operations, in a blog post Thursday. .

He said the online retailer started these checks on Sunday and is already doing temperature checks daily for more than 100,000 employees.

Clark said those orders are now starting to arrive and are being distributed to workers.

"Masks will be available as soon as today in some locations and in all locations by early next week," Clark said.

Walmart, the largest private employer in the US, said this week it started temperature checks for its workers and will be making masks available for employees.

Additionally, Clark said the company has already hired over 80,000 new employees, out of the 100,000 US workers it had said it planned to bring on to respond to a spike in demand from customers.

He said Amazon plans to "go well beyond" its initial investment of $350 million in additional pay to its workers.

Added to that complex logistics puzzle, local and national news have already reported of a handful of Amazon warehouse workers testing positive for the pandemic.

As part of Thursday's announcement, Clark said Amazon said has relaxed a new policy for paid time off

Clark said Thursday anyone who is "presumptively diagnosed," but can't get a coronavirus test, can access that paid test off