Apple, amid the coronavirus pandemic, has already closed, reopened, and re-closed numerous retail stores. Now, a new report says the company is not only encouraging retail staff to work remotely, but is sending coronavirus testing kits to employees’ homes. 

According to a Bloomberg News story published this week, which cited a video shared with Apple employees, is “shipping Covid-19 test kits to employees’ homes.” 

It’s unclear how many test kits Apple has access to, or how it got access to them. 

“If your store is closed, please sign up for Retail at Home, please talk to your manager, because we really need to make sure that we shift our teams to greet our customers remotely in this time,” Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of retail and people, said the video, according to Bloomberg. “We may need to be working remotely for some period of time.”

“This is not the experience that we want to have for our customers,” O’Brien said in the video, per Bloomberg. “So, we really want to make sure that we are moving to where our customers are, to help them during this very challenging time. As you know, people are really dependent upon their devices, especially right now.”

Apple closed all of its retail stores outside of China in March, and at that point, launched a program allowing retail employees to switch to online customer service roles. The company has brought some employees back to its headquarters in Cupertino, California, although its annual World Wide Developers’ Conference took place virtually, with the keynote mostly pre-taped. 

Apple reopened some of its retail stores in May, with social distancing protocols in place. Many of those stores were closed, however, after they were damaged in the unrest following the killing of George Floyd, at the start of June. Since then, more stores have closed, as the coronavirus cases have surged once again in some parts of the United States.

Apple is preparing, later this year, to debut a new line of iPhones with OLED screens and 5G capability. 

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters