Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company is donating 10 million masks to healthcare workers in the US

Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted Saturday that the company was donating “millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe,” to help combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. Cook’s tweet appears to confirm a statement earlier in the day by Vice President Mike Pence. “The president and I literally heard directly from Apple that they’re donating 2 million industrial masks to this effort around the country and working with our administration to distribute those,” Pence said at a White House press briefing. A later briefing from Pence on March 24th would expand that number to 9 million donated masks, which Apple CEO Tim Cook would further clarify in a tweet to “10 million masks for the US and millions more for the hardest hit regions in Europe.

” Our teams at Apple have been working to help source supplies for healthcare providers fighting COVID-19. We’re donating millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe. To every one of the heroes on the front lines, we thank you. According to Cook’s tweet, Apple’s operations team is using its supply chain knowledge to source, procure, and donate the masks, which helps explain how Apple was able to obtain so many masks in such a short time.

Globally, masks are in high demand, but supplies are running low. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a note to employees Saturday that “masks remain in short supply globally. ” The company has “placed purchase orders for millions of face masks we want to give to our employees and contractors who cannot work from home, but very few of those orders have been filled,” Bezos wrote. N95 respirators are disposable, close-fitting masks that can keep virus-laden droplets away from the wearer’s mouth and nose.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that the masks’ effectiveness is “highly dependent upon proper fit and use. ” Pence said Saturday that the Department of Health and Human Services “placed an order for hundreds of millions of N95 masks,” with the order coordinated through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Where the masks were ordered from and when they would be available wasn’t clear from Pence’s remarks. The shortage of personal protective equipment like face masks has become a serious problem for healthcare workers, with some resorting to using less-effective masks or even going without while treating patients, the New York Times reported.