On Sunday, Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted a video of himself describing the ways in which Apple is doing its part in supplying medical professionals with safety equipment.
Apple is dedicated to supporting the worldwide response to COVID-19. We’ve now sourced over 20M masks through our supply chain. Our design, engineering, operations and packaging teams are also working with suppliers to design, produce and ship face shields for medical workers. pic.twitter.com/3xRqNgMThX
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 5, 2020
In addition to having sourced over 20 million masks across the world through its supply chain and donating them to in-need facilities, Cook states that the company’s ‘design, engineering, operations and packaging teams are also working with suppliers to design, produce and ship face shields for medical workers.’
The first shipment of these masks — which can be assembled in under two minutes and are fully adjustable — were made last week to Santa Clara Valley in California. Cook says that Apple has plans to ship over one million masks by the end of this week and one million every week after that. While shipment will be limited to the US at the beginning, the company intends to spread distribution outside the country, as well.
According to Cook, both these efforts are “a labor of love and gratitude” for Apple.