Why Does Apple Have Millions Of Masks To Donate To Healthcare Facilities?

Following Apple's continued announcements of donating more than 9 million N95 masks to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic, a clear question now arises, why does Apple have so many face masks? Turns out the answer is quite simple. They did so to comply with last year's state regulations, to protect employees from toxic fumes from California bushfires.

CNBC said in Wednesday that the leaders of both Apple and Facebook (which also contributed 700,000 face masks, although not all of them are N95), confirmed that they had stored them in stock due to a wildfire in California in 2019 caused the state government to make laws that require companies to do so.

In 2019, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Commission adopted a regulation requiring employers to provide breathing equipment, including N95 masks, to workers when the quality index AQI air reaches a level that is not harmful to health.

However, with Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California has a maximum capacity of up to 12,000 employees, it's unclear why Apple needs to store up to 9 million face masks. Apple representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

During the fire season in California in 2019, there were more than 7,860 different wildfires, resulting in more than 1 million square kilometers of forest burned.

Facemasks have been in shortage worldwide since the coronavirus outbreak and widespread, and healthcare workers are most in need of these items to care for the patients. US Vice President Mike Pence announced on Tuesday that Apple has donated 9 million N95 face masks.

On Saturday, Apple also donated 2 million gas masks to help healthcare workers. Cook confirmed this on Twitter after his company tried to find masks for healthcare workers in the US and Europe.

On the same day, Mr. Pence called on companies to follow suit with more donations. He said he is optimistic about mask supplies and said clothing manufacturer Hanesbrands is retrofitting new production lines to its factory.

“It’s a great time to go to your storeroom, and if you have N95 masks if you’ve got 100 of them, if you’ve got 10,000 of them, load them up and drive them over to your local hospital,” said Pence on 21 March.

To date, 597,391 cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide with more than 27,366 deaths. In the US, the number of people infected with the coronavirus is more than 104,205 and about 1,701 have died from the injection.

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