Apple design team has reportedly created two types of custom face masks, including clear ones, for their corporate and retail employees to help limit the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
According to Bloomberg, the two kinds of masks are called the Apple Face Mask and Apple ClearMask. The first one was developed in-house by the tech giant’s internal teams for its staff, while the Clear model was created in partnership with Washington-based Gallaudet University, which specializes in educating students who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Apple confirmed the news and said that it conducted careful research to find the right material for their masks and not disrupt the supply of medical protective equipment at the same time.
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The clear mask is the first transparent surgical mask to be approved by the FDA. It will allow you to see the face and lips of the person wearing it, meaning that people with hearing problems will be able to read lips, which is vital in noisy stores.
The Apple Face Mask consists of three layers that filter particles that come in and out. According to what Apple told its employees, one can wash and reuse these masks up to five times. The mask looks quite unique and has large coverings on the top and bottom to cover your chin and nose, and its adjustable strings will fit around a wearer’s ears.
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It has been reported that the new masks will be shipped to the tech giant’s employees in the next few weeks, replacing the standard cloth masks they are wearing now. Apple also provides customers with ordinary surgical masks as they visit its retail stores.
We don’t know yet if Apple plans to distribute new masks more widely as they were created for the company’s employees. There’s no photo of how any of the masks might look like either.
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Back in April, the Cupertino company also created a face shield specifically for medical workers and distributed millions of them across hospitals and places of need. Apart from that, Apple has already donated millions of N95 masks to healthcare facilities worldwide.
Besides, in an effort to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, Apple also launched coronavirus screening website and app in March and teamed up with Google against COVID-19 by implementing contact tracing in iOS and Android devices.
