Apple will temporarily close all of its retail stores in California, as well as those in the Greater London area affected by the new outbreak lockdown, in addition to other regional stores that have seen a spike in new cases of coronary pneumonia, it has been announced.
On Saturday, Apple said on its website that it would close 53 stores throughout California. And just a day before that, Apple announced it would close its retail stores in the Los Angeles area. The store closures now cover Apple’s major locations in the San Francisco Bay Area. At this time, Apple is not disclosing the timing of the reopening.
The collective closure of retail stores coincides with the peak holiday shopping season in the United States. Apple has been hoping to top $100 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time with the iPhone 12, the latest iPad and the new Apple Watch.
California has been at the center of the U.S. outbreak in recent weeks. On Saturday, the state had more than 1.8 million total cases, with 43,608 new infections and 272 deaths, for a total of 22,432 deaths. The Apple store closures will also include its retail stores in Silicon Valley. This is also the largest Apple store closure since the outbreak in March this year.
Recently, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a complete lockdown of London and southeast England in an attempt to stop the rapid spread of another new coronavirus in the United Kingdom. The rate of Covid-19 cases in London has nearly doubled in the past week, with nearly 60 percent of infections caused by this new strain, according to British government officials.
In a statement, Apple said, “Given the current status of the Covid-19 outbreak in some of the areas we serve, we are temporarily closing our stores located in those areas. We are taking this step very cautiously as we are closely monitoring the situation and we look forward to having our team and customers back as soon as possible.”
The vast majority of Apple’s more than 270 stores in the U.S. have reopened in recent months, though most require appointments. For the retail stores that are still open, Apple has transformed many of them into what it calls “Express” stores. Apple is converting the front lobby of its retail stores into a bank teller-like queue for people to purchase products and pick up items for repair.
Apple will also temporarily close its stores in Mexico and Brazil as new cases of crowns increase in both countries.
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