New York (CNN Business) Amazon has started to develop a test for the novel coronavirus in order to help restart the battered economy.

CEO Jeff Bezos in his annual letter to shareholders that regular testing for every industry is needed to "both help keep people safe and help get the economy back up and running." He said for that to happen, society needs "vastly more testing capacity" than is currently available. He's assembled a team of Amazon employees from various units to create new tools to test for Covid-19.

Amazon AMZN Bezos saidwill begin testing "small numbers" of employees soon. "We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant time frame, but we think it's worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn," he wrote.

Bezos said in his letter that he's focused on the safety of Amazon's global workforce, despite ongoing criticism that the company isn't doing enough and has fired outspoken critics.

The company has made 150 "significant process changes" in both its operations network and Whole Foods , he said. That includes temperature checks, increased sanitation of facilities and offering personal protection equipment, like masks, to employees.

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