With support from Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund, COPAN Diagnostics has shipped more than 15 million COVID-19 test kits to medical facilities across the country.

Apple posted a press release this morning stating that after receiving $10 million from their Advanced Manufacturing Fund, COPAN Diagnostics has now shipped more than 15 million COVID-19 sample collection kits for communities across the country.

Teams at Apple, COPAN, and more than a dozen other US companies created innovative processes and developed new machinery for COPAN’s Southern California facilities, increasing test-kit production by close to 4,000 percent since April.

Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer: "We are proud our Advanced Manufacturing Fund is supporting companies like COPAN who are playing a critical role in the fight against COVID-19 and assisting healthcare professionals and communities across the country. This collaboration helped produce, ship, and deliver millions of sample collection kits to hospitals from coast to coast — and we believe it is this unique combination of American manufacturing and innovation that will help us emerge from this crisis and build a safer world for us all."

Since May, COPAN has shipped those sample collection kits to medical facilities across the country, including hospitals in California, Wisconsin, and Texas.

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Teams from across Apple worked alongside COPAN Diagnostics to open a brand-new facility and set up a state-of-the-art medical supply chain in a matter of weeks to help support COVID-19 relief efforts in communities from coast to coast.

Dr. Aleta Bonner is a pediatric emergency medicine physician in Temple, Texas, and has been studying the effects of respiratory viruses for more than two decades. When the pandemic caused a dramatic rise in cases in her community, she took time away from pediatric medicine to focus on collecting COVID-19 specimens and conducting a research study that would determine the most effective ways to test for the virus. Her hospital received the COPAN COVID-19 testing kits.

Statement by Dr. Aleta Bonner:  "The preferred specimen swabs are definitely COPAN’s because of their superior collection capabilities. And to hear how they ramped up to support those of us in the healthcare field — that is just an amazing feeling. We’re all in this together because we can only do our job as well as the support that’s behind us."

In order to meet the ongoing demand for testing resources, COPAN accelerated its production and shipping timeline, and built an entire team to ramp this project, hiring nearly 250 new employees who worked alongside Apple engineers, product designers, operations professionals, and others. Together, the teams opened a brand-new facility and set up a state-of-the-art medical supply chain in a matter of weeks to meet the country’s testing needs and help communities shape their responses.

Apple’s Advanced Manufacturing Fund was designed to foster and support the innovative production and high-skill jobs that will help fuel a new era of technology-driven manufacturing in the US. To date, Apple has invested over $1.3 billion from the fund to support American manufacturing and innovation. Apple supports more than 450,000 supplier jobs across all 50 states. For more on this, read the full press release.