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Apple is donating 10 million face masks to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, CEO Tim Cook said.

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 comments come after US Vice President Mike Pence said Apple would donate 9 million masks on Tuesday.

Cook is one of several tech CEOs that has pledged to donate face masks, along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Along with the announcement about Apple's contribution, Cook also urged the general public to follow the advice from health experts and stay home as much as possible. The Apple chief executive also said he's currently working from home.

“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 “"Proud to share we’ve been able to source 10M masks for the US and millions more for the hardest hit regions in Europe,"

Cook's remarks come after Vice President Mike Pence said during a press briefing on Tuesday that the tech giant would donate 9 million N95 face maks to US relief efforts.

"And I spoke today, and the president spoke last week, with Tim Cook of Apple," Pence said. "And at this moment in time Apple went to their store houses and is donating 9 million N95 masks to healthcare facilities all across the country and to the national stockpile. "

Apple is one of several technology giants donating masks as the US grapples with supply shortages as the coronavirus spreads.

Doctors in at least two hospitals in New York City, which has been a hotspot for COVID-19 infections, have been told to reuse their masks to preserve their supply, Business Insider's Jacob Shamsian reported earlier in March. In Los Angeles, some doctors are turning to seamstresses in the city's garment district for new masks.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also recently said the company will be donating the 720,000 masks it had purchased as a protective measure against the California wildfires and plans to source millions more.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also recently said in an email to CleanTechnica that he'll be donating at least 250,000 N95 masks.

N95 respirators are different than surgical face masks in that they're able to form a tight enough seal to filter out at least 95% of particles in the air, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Surgical masks, comparatively, are loose-fitting and protects the wearer from large droplets and splashes.

Jeff Bezos says Amazon is having trouble getting masks for its workers

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.

TheVerge

Amazon is positioning itself as an ‘essential’ service during the pandemic — a move that benefits the company and puts its warehouse workers and drivers in danger

Last night, speaking from the state’s emergency operations center in Sacramento, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered everyone in the state to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Malls, retail stores, and other businesses not considered critical infrastructure were to close in the most sweeping lockdown so far in the US.

That same night, also in Sacramento, an Amazon worker received an automated call telling him that his job at a distribution center was essential, and he should continue to come to work. In Washington, an early epicenter of the US outbreak, managers at an Amazon warehouse told employees that they would continue doing their jobs despite the state-mandated closure of nonessential businesses and the fact that workers in Amazon’s nearby corporate offices have been working remotely since March 5th.

As the virus spreads and cities lock down, Amazon workers across the country are finding themselves thrust into a new role: delivering goods to a nation in quarantine. But many fear that the safety precautions, benefits, and protections have not changed sufficiently to reflect the new reality, and that if their warehouses continue operating as everything else shuts down, many will fall ill.

CROWDED WORKPLACES, NONEXISTENT SCREENINGS FOR SYMPTOMS, A LACK OF CLEANING SUPPLIES, AND A PACE OF WORK THAT MADE PROPER SANITATION DIFFICULT

“We’re all going to get sick eventually,” said a worker at a facility in Washington. “The vibe with coworkers is that we are all probably going to get it. It’s just a matter of time.”

Amazon is uniquely positioned to thrive in the crisis. It’s spent more than two decades building a robust logistics network capable of delivering almost anything to anyone, and now Americans stuck at home are turning to the company to supply basic necessities. Data supplied by JungleScout shows search volume surging first for face masks and hand sanitizer, then for rice, soup, webcams, monitors — anything Americans might need as they hunker down. Already infrastructure for a huge portion of e-commerce, Amazon is becoming infrastructure for a house-bound populace.

But the virus also poses an unprecedented threat to Amazon’s logistics system and, more importantly, the workers who make it run. The company’s fulfillment centers depend on staffs of a thousand or more working in close proximity. The Verge spoke with 24 warehouse workers and delivery drivers, many of whom spoke of crowded workplaces, nonexistent screenings for symptoms, a lack of cleaning supplies, and a pace of work that made proper sanitation difficult. Across the country, workers are weighing the need for an income against the fear that they might become infected and endanger their loved ones.

These concerns will only become more acute as the pandemic worsens. On March 18th, The Atlantic reported that a worker at an Amazon distribution center in New York tested positive for the virus. Workers on the following shift said they weren’t notified and were expected to come in but refused when learning of the case from co-workers, shutting down the facility. (Amazon said it notified workers and that they weren’t expected to work the following shift, and that it has temporarily closed the facility for cleaning.) In Italy and Spain, Amazon has refused to shut down facilities where workers have been infected, prompting protests.

“I think what will wind up happening is the warehouse is going to stay open pretty much no matter what,” said Tyler Hamilton, a worker at a fulfillment center in Minnesota, where the governor has ordered schools and many businesses closed. “I understand why, because everything else is closed, and to make sure for society that people get basic necessities, food, toiletries — that’s important. But if you’re going to have that happening you should be taking proper precautions for your workers so they’re not suffering at the expense for everyone else.”

“IF SOMEONE HAS A VIRUS, ALL OF US HAVE IT.”

In response to the pandemic, Amazon has altered policies and instituted new procedures. Last week, Amazon announced that employees who test positive for COVID-19 will get two weeks paid leave, though testing is still largely unavailable, and workers who take time off when symptoms appear risk going without pay if it turns out they were ill with something else. Amazon also announced that workers can take unlimited time off without pay. (Previously, they would have been fired for overdrawing their quota of unpaid time off.) While some workers have taken unpaid leave because they fear infection or need to care for children who have been sent home from school, many more say they cannot afford to go without a paycheck.

Reached for comment about Amazon’s status as an essential service and safety concerns among workers, an Amazon spokesperson said that the company had instituted new cleaning procedures, taken measures to encourage social distancing in its warehouses, and made other changes. “The health and safety of our employees and contractors around the world continues to be our top priority,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “As communities around the world are requiring social distancing, we’re seeing that our teams—much like grocery stores, pharmacies and other essential services—have a unique role getting customers the critical items they need and this is especially vital for the elderly, people with underlying health issues, and those sick or quarantined.”

But while workers say they have been told to wipe down their stations and wash their hands with sanitizer, they’re still expected to maintain the same intense pace, which leaves little time to do so. “The longer you take to do it, the faster you’re going to have to work later on,” Hamilton said. “They should allow associates to go to the bathroom, to wash their hands regularly, as opposed to counting it against them.”

Warehouse workers in Washington, California, and Minnesota say they are not being screened for symptoms when arriving at work and that their jobs often require them to stand far closer than the six-foot distance recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “If you try to stretch your hand, it would reach next person,” said Hibaq Mohamed, who works on the packaging line in a Minnesota fulfillment center. Workers pass items to each other and often share equipment. “If someone has a virus, all of us have it,” she said.

William Stolz, another worker at the facility, worries that operating without testing every worker and implementing other safety measures will cause the warehouse to become a major vector for transmission. “I really think that with this pandemic, if Amazon is staying open with the risk of the transmission being what it is, if this pandemic gets worse, they’re going to be part of the reason why.”

A DELIVERY DRIVER IN INDIANAPOLIS SAID HE WAS GIVEN SANITIZING WIPES ON MONDAY BUT NONE AFTER THAT

Last week, Amazon workers in New York began circulating a petition calling for paid sick leave regardless of diagnosis, hazard pay, the shutdown of facilities if workers test positive for the virus, and an end to penalties for not meeting the rate. “As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds and communities everywhere prepare for the worst, Amazon workers have become crucial in getting people their food, water, and sanitation supplies,” the group wrote.

Safety measures have also been uneven for delivery drivers, according to interviews with a dozen drivers, most of whom work for third-party companies that have contracts with Amazon. A delivery driver in Indianapolis said he was given sanitizing wipes on Monday but none after that. A driver in Virginia said some vans have hand sanitizer and wipes but others don’t and that every morning, he gathers with 20 to 30 other drivers to collect their keys. A driver in Georgia said she’d been told to sanitize her van and wash her hands but was given no supplies to do so. “Our packages go through so many hands before we even get them,” she said, noting that research found the virus can live on plastic for three days and cardboard for 24 hours. She’s scared, but she can’t afford not to work.

Nevertheless, some workers are choosing to take the financial hit and stay home. For some, they need to care for children who are no longer at school. Others fear becoming infected and passing the virus to others. “There’s more attrition day-to-day, so you don’t have the same amount of staffing,” said a worker at the Minnesota facility.

The reduced staffing comes at a time of unprecedented demand. Amazon typically hires thousands of temporary workers to handle the surges of Prime Day and holiday shopping, but it lets them go in January. “It’s like Prime Day every day — Prime Week,” said one warehouse worker, but without the staff to keep up. On Amazon, a growing number of items are showing up as out of stock, and deliveries that normally take a day or two now stretch to a week or more.

The bottleneck is being felt farther down the delivery chain. Drivers in Florida, Georgia, Virginia, and elsewhere said their routes have been shorter than usual all week. When a driver for Amazon Flex, the company’s on-demand delivery program, pulled up to their warehouse this weekend, the worker directing traffic said several workers had called out and deliveries were backed up, while another worker announced that they were starting hiring that day.

On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it was hiring 100,000 new workers and raising wages by $2 per hour, but it’s unclear whether that will be enough to entice people to venture into a crowded warehouse during a pandemic. “All warehouses right now are going to have a very difficult time maintaining manpower,” says Marc Wulfraat of the logistics consulting company MWPVL International. E-commerce companies like Amazon are particularly labor-intensive, he says, because they ship out individual products rather than bulk pallets. “Those buildings that Amazon has are extremely populated, they have the biggest parking lots of any distribution centers that are being made. They’re like little cities of two thousand, three thousand people working under one roof. The only thing I can predict is that even with the extra money that they’re offering, they are going to be hit hard with throughput shortages.”

“JUST LIKE AT A HOSPITAL, THAT IS ALSO MISSION CRITICAL.”

Workers worry that if Amazon’s recruitment drive succeeds, their warehouses will become even more crowded at a time when other businesses are being ordered to shift to telework, reduce staff, or close entirely. Local governments vary on what businesses are considered essential and can maintain operations, but so far most orders exempt warehouses, food, and other categories Amazon could reasonably fall under. On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it was temporarily halting deliveries of nonessential items to its warehouses, an effort to meet surging demand for medical supplies and household staples, but also a move that would bolster its case that it needs to keep running.

Many workers agree that the pandemic has transformed their jobs into something more essential, though several noted that they’re still shipping plenty of phone cases, house decorations, and other low-priority goods. (“We physically cannot keep up with the amount of orders,” one worker pleaded. “If you want to buy non-essentials, put it in your shopping cart, get it later, because it’s coming at the cost of sanitation supplies and food. It’s people staying fed and people staying healthy.”) But the virus has also transformed their jobs into something more dangerous, and if operations are going to continue as everything else shuts down, workers feel more substantive safety measures need to be taken.

“You would have something like Amazon that does stay open and provide that basic service, but the workers would have the full precautions and protection to deal with it, because you are working in a pandemic in an area full of people,” said Hamilton, the Minnesota warehouse worker. “Just like at a hospital, that is also mission critical. “You need the hospital during a pandemic, you need that service to make sure you get through it. But people in a hospital get protection, at least as much as we can,” he said, acknowledging that even medical workers currently lack necessary protective gear. “If we were to actually prepare better as a society, or in Amazon’s case as a company, it would look something like that.”

Update March 21, 11AM ET: The story has been updated to include a statement from Amazon.

via TheVerge

Apple is donating 10 million face masks to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, CEO Tim Cook said.

Jeff Bezos says Amazon is having trouble getting masks for its workers

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