Apple has custom made official masks for its corporate and retail employees around the world to stay protected and break the chain of human transmission of COVID-19. This is the first time that the company has manufactured in-house exclusive face masks for its staff. Previously, Apple provided employees with standard cloth masks.
As Apple Stores have re-opened worldwide, the company is ensuring that SOPs are strictly followed by the employees and the customers. Large groups at a time in the store are still prohibited and the visitors are given surgical masks on entering the store.
Apple develops special face masks for employees
The Cupertino tech giant told its staff that the Face Mask was designed by the Engineering and Industrial Design teams, the same groups that work on devices such as the iPhone and iPad. It is made up of three layers to filter incoming and outgoing particles. It can be washed and reused as many as five times, the company told employees.
In classic Apple fashion, the mask looks unique with large coverings on the top and bottom for the wearer’s nose and chin. It also has adjustable strings to fit around a person’s ears, as reported by Bloomberg.
The report also goes on to state that according to Apple, the masks were designed after conducting “careful research and testing.” The tech giant said it had to find the right materials to “filter the air while not disrupting supplies of medical personal protective equipment.”
Both corporate and retail employees will start getting these face masks over the next two weeks.
This isn’t the tech giant’s first venture into personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In April, CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple would donate 20 million face masks to healthcare workers across the US. The company also designed and manufactured face shields for hospital workers, with plans to ship 1 million a week.
The company is also rolling out a transparent surgical mask, sourced from a company called ‘ClearMask’ to employees so hearing-impaired customers can see employees’ faces and understand them more clearly. It’s the first fully transparent surgical mask to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
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