Apple reportedly doubles donations to China's coronavirus recovery

Weeks after Apple  began reopening its mainland China retail stores, the company is apparently more than doubling its contributions to that country's fight against the coronavirus outbreak. It'll pour over 50 million yuan (about $7.04 million) into the recovery effort, according to Reuters, which cited a post from CEO Tim Cook on Chinese social network Weibo.

The company's initial 20 million yuan (around $2.82 million) donation went to six hospitals in Hubei province, the news gathering service noted. Nearly 3,200 people in Hubei, which was the epicenter of the outbreak there, died of the virus as of early Wednesday.

In February, Apple warned that it's likely to miss its quarterly revenue guidance due to the outbreak's impact on both demand from Chinese customers and its production capabilities in the country.

Last month, US Vice President Mike Pence praised Apple for pledging to donate 2 million face masks and encouraged any businesses with masks to follow suit -- Cook later increased the donation to 10 million face masks.

The new strain of coronavirus, which can develop into a respiratory illness known as COVID-19, was discovered in Wuhan, China, in December and has spread worldwide since then. As of Wednesday morning, it had infected more than 874,000 people and caused more than 43,000 deaths globally.

The company didn't respond to a request for comment.

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