Band of Heroes: Apple Sets The Bar With Multiple COVID-19 Relief Efforts Around The World

It's a new week of #BandofHeroes, where we love to celebrate positive news from our partners in response to the on-going Coronavirus Pandemic. This week’s hero is a brand that has changed many of our lives, Apple. Read on to know more about the series of initiatives that Apple has come up with to help fight COVID-19. 

Donating 50 million yuan to provide additional help in China 

Apple is contributing more than 50 million yuan ($7 million) towards emergency response funds to the COVID-19 crisis in China. The company has already donated 20 million yuan of the promised amount to the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation in order to help support six Hubei-based hospitals. Apple will give the rest of the money to support longer-term health recovery efforts. 

“China has shown incredible spirit and resilience during the COVID-19 outbreak and we are grateful to our teams, partners and customers for their support during these challenging times,” said Tim Cook in a message on Weibo.

This is just a part of the company monetary contributions as the company has donated over $15 milion to fight the pandemic around the world including  a “substantial donation” to Italian emergency services. The company is also matching their employee donations two-to-one to support COVID-19 response efforts locally, nationally and internationally.

Read more here. 

Shipping custom face shields to protect healthcare workers during the pandemic

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, announced that the tech giant is currently designing and producing face shields to support healthcare workers across the United States amid the COVID-19 outbreak. In early April, Tim Cook issued a statement on his twitter account, stating that the company had already sourced and donated 10 million masks though Apple’s supply chain, that number has now been increased to 20 million. He also added that the whole company is collaborating on designing, producing, and shipping custom face shields bringing together product designers, engineering operations, packaging teams, and suppliers to support the medical system. 

“First, the number of masks we’ve been able to source through our supply chain has risen to over 20 million around the world. This is a truly global effort and we’re working continuously and closely with governments at all levels to ensure these are donated to places of greatest need.” Said Tim Cook. 

Read more here.

Committing “Product Red” Proceedings to COVID-19 relief fund 

Apple announced that it will donate a portion of sales from their Product Red products to the Global Fund’s COVID-19 relief fund until September 30th. The Product Red include Apple watch bands, cases as well as iPones including the new Product Red iPhone SE set to launch on April 24.Product Red is a partnership between major brands such as Starbucks, Nike and Apple uniting to raise funds that normally go toward fighting HIV/AIDS. However, because of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the program will now be providing support to the healthcare system.

Read more here.

Partnering with Google to develop a Coronavirus tracking system

Apple and Google are joining forces to enable Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, keeping user privacy and security central to the design. The system will be a contact tracing tool, which will allow public health officials to figure out who an infected person has been in contact with in order to prevent them to infect others. The program is still in early stages of production as Apple and Google are still talking to public health authorities to figure out how to run it. 

Read more here.

These are only a few new initiatives that Apple is doing to respond to communities they serve during this time. To date, has also given over $111,850 to local youth sports teams in North America through FlipGive.