Apple To Make 1M Face Shields Per Week For Coronavirus Health Workers

Apple Inc. AAPL is planning to make 1 million face shields every week for healthcare workers, as part of its efforts against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, chief executive officer Tim Cook announced Sunday.

What Happened

"We've launched a company-wide effort, bringing together product designers, engineering, operations and packaging teams, and our suppliers to design, produce, and ship face shields for health workers," Cook said.

The CEO added that the first shipment was already delivered to Kaiser hospital facilities in the Santa Clara Valley ahead of Sunday, and "the feedback from doctors was very positive."

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

According to Cook, the face shield can be assembled in two minutes and can be adjusted to match the size of the wearer. In addition, Apple has sourced 20 million face masks that will be donated to health workers, the 59-year old said.

This is twice the number of masks Apple had sourced by late March, according to an earlier announcement.

Why It Matters

There has been a shortage of medical protective gear for COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and a number of companies, including Apple, Facebook Inc. FB, Tesla Inc. TSLA, Ford Motor Company F, and the General Electric Company GE have stepped in to fill the gaps. President Donald Trump on Thursday imposed the defense production act on 3M Co. MMM that would allow his administration to control the company's operations during the pandemic.

Price Action

Apple's shares closed 1.44% lower at $241.41 on Friday. The shares were mostly unchanged in the after-hours session.