Even though Apple has been experimenting with medical technologies for a long time, it has never emphasised it. Therefore, no one particularly expected that they would even get involved in the story of the coronavirus in Cupertino. Not only has Apple developed a mobile tracking system for COVID-19 patients, but it has also actively taken up the production of protective uniforms. But if the participation in the development and production of masks for respiratory protection could still be somehow explained, then it wasn’t easy to imagine that the company would start producing tests for detecting coronavirus.
It turns out that since April last year, Apple has been directly involved in the production of tests to detect COVID-19. The company announced this today, February 22, on its official website. Apple’s help has increased diagnostic output by 4,000%, equipping health authorities with the tools they need to identify millions of patients early.
Apple’s COVID-19 tests
Apple did not conduct scientific research on the diagnosis of COVID-19. The assistance the company provided to the industry was primarily technical and financial. Apple has committed more than $ 10 million to develop and manufacture essential hardware that has helped COPAN Diagnostics, one of the largest US COVID-19 test makers, increase its diagnostic tools production.
Teams from Apple, COPAN and more than a dozen other U.S. companies have developed new equipment to produce COVID-19 test kits, increasing production by nearly 4,000% per week. We are proud that our Foundation supports companies like COPAN that are at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 and helping professionals across the country, ”said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer.
Few people know, but Apple has a special fund called the Apple Advanced Manufacturing Fund. He allocates money to help produce socially useful products to enterprises that cannot cope with this on their own. One of these products is COVID-19 tests; even in the first wave of the pandemic, which occurred at the end of winter-early spring, the release of diagnostic tools was only a few thousand per week. Still, thanks to funding and direct participation from Apple, they grew to several million.
Apple against COVID-19
Apple’s help to the industry has been invaluable. According to Dr Aleta Bonner, who studies respiratory viruses, COVID-19 test kits, which COPAN Diagnostics partners with Apple, are the best available on the market today. They provide high testing accuracy with a minimum of erroneous results, which allows for the most efficient detection of diseases and preventing the spread of the virus.
The most preferred biomaterial collection media is undoubtedly COPAN due to its superior performance. Therefore, we were very happy when they got to our clinic. After all, only together, we can do our work as efficiently as possible. And the help we get from companies outside of our industry is helping us in the best possible way, ”Bonner said.
It’s actually pretty good to know that Apple is putting so much effort into fighting the spread of COVID-19. The same infection tracking system, which many considered ineffective, saved thousands of people from the UK from infection and saved hundreds of people from death. But she works with dozens of countries worldwide, which means she could save hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, not to mention the rest of the company’s initiatives, which she obviously prefers not to talk about.