On Thursday, Apple announced that it was awarding $10 million to a supplier of nasal swabs and other products to gather samples for COVID-19 tests in a move aimed at increasing demand by the swab producer to 1 million collection kits a week by early July.
The two companies said the award would help COPAN Diagnostics located in Murrieta, California, grow into a larger facility and generate 50 new jobs in Southern California. Apple said it would support COPAN Diagnostics to develop and import new equipment from York, K2 Kinetics based in Pennsylvania, and Waukesha, MWES based in Wisconsin, both makers of advanced robotics devices, in addition to providing funding.
Shortages of test kits and research materials have hindered attempts to monitor the spread of the novel coronavirus in the US.
COPAN Diagnostics in California makes advanced nasal swabs to gather samples for COVID-19 testing, along with vials and sterile tubes used to move those swabs to labs for processing. The company said the assistance from Apple would increase the production of test kits for U.S. hospitals from a current few thousand kits a week to over one million kits a week by early July.
Apple did not indicate the purpose of the financing but rather gave the grant from an advanced manufacturing fund of $5 billion. Previously, the iPhone manufacturer used the fund to finance its suppliers’ acquisitions and development, such as Corning, which makes glass for iPhones, and II-VI Inc-owned Finisar, which makes chips for face recognition sensors for Apple.
Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said in a statement:
“We feel a deep sense of responsibility to do everything we can to help medical workers, patients, and communities support the global response to COVID-19,”
The Panthera Post 