Apple isn't just sourcing masks, it's building custom face shields as well

Tim Cook (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Apple CEO Tim Cook offered a coronavirus update via Twitter.
He said Apple has sourced over 20 million masks for health workers.
Apple as also designed a custom face shield that's already in production.

Apple CEO Tim Cook took to Twitter yesterday to share an update on the company's work to help get face masks into the hands of the healthcare workers who need them. In a video posted to the social network, Cook said that Apple has so far sourced more than 20 million masks as well as begun production on a custom face shield.

Cook had previously said that Apple had sourced more than 10 million masks in a similar update with that number now doubling. But that is perhaps the least notable aspect of the update with Cook also saying that is company has designed and produced a new, custom face shield. And some of them are already in the wild.

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/3xRqNgMThXApple 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 April 5, 2020

...we've launched a company wide effort bringing together product designers, engineering, operations, packaging teams, and our suppliers to design, produce, and ship face shields for health workers.Our first shipment was delivered to Kaiser hospital facilities in the Santa Clara Valley this past week, and the feedback from doctors was very positive. These pack flat, 100 to a box. Each shield is assembles in less than two minutes and is fully adjustable. We're sourcing materials and manufacturing in the US and China.

Cook went on to say that Apple intends to ship more than 1 million of the shields by the end of this week, with another million every week after that. While shipments will be US-only initially, Apple hopes to be able to expand beyond that eventually.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.