Apple Again Closing Some Stores in Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and South Carolina Due to Coronavirus Spikes

[MacRumors]

As coronavirus outbreaks spike in some areas of the United States, Apple is planning to close retail stores located in Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, and South Carolina, according to Bloomberg.

Apple began reopening stores in the United States in May, and as of this week, 154 of the company's 271 stores had been reopened. Coronavirus cases are climbing in some places in the U.S., however, and Apple is reclosing locations in affected areas.

Apple will be closing eleven of its retail stores, including Southpark and Northlake Mall in North Carolina, Waterside Shops and Coconut Point in Florida, Haywood Mall in South Carolina, and Chandler Fashion Center, Scottsdale Fashion Square, Arrowhead, SanTan Village, Scottsdale Quarter, and La Encantada in Arizona.

Apple had reopened all 18 of its stores in Florida, five in Arizona, three in North Carolina, and one in South Carolina prior to the closures. Apple in a statement said that it is temporarily closing stores in "an abundance of caution" and is closely monitoring the situation. There is no planned date for reopening, and customers who have devices being repaired at these locations can pick them up this weekend.

Apple's retail chief, Deirdre O'Brien in a letter to customers amid of store openings said that Apple will only reopen stores when its confident it can safely serve customers.

Decisions to close or reopen stores are based on data evaluation, such as local cases, near and long-term trends, and guidance from national and local health officials. O'Brien warned that Apple would not hesitate to close stores again if coronavirus cases spiked. "These are not decisions we rush into -- and a store opening in no way means that we won't take the preventative step of closing it again should local conditions warrant," O'Brien said.

In stores that have reopened, Apple is implementing safety measures that include mandatory masks, social distancing, frequent cleaning, temperature checks, and more. In some locations, stores are open only for repairs and curb-side pickup, while others are open but with a limited number of people allowed in at one time.

Article Link: Apple Again Closing Some Stores in Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and South Carolina Due to Coronavirus Spikes

 

[Baymowe335]

People aren’t wearing masks.

 

[PeterRollback]

People aren’t wearing masks.

a mask is required to enter the Apple store

 

[pgharavi]

Unbelievable.

And I'm not referring to Apple's decision.

 

[dannyyankou]

Wear a damn mask!
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a mask is required to enter the Apple store

That's not the point, people aren't wearing masks outside of the apple store which is making it more likely for the virus to enter the apple store.

 

[mtneer]

Did Apple provide a statement explaining these closures? Gurman's tweet just says that they closed the stores, not why.

 

[Baymowe335]

a mask is required to enter the Apple store

Read the article. People are arguing about wearing it at all.

 

[newyorksole]

Idk how the guy from 9to5Mac can keep up with the list of all the closures/reopenings Lol. Hard to keep up with at this point.

There’s probably going to be spikes in a lot more states.

 

[unobtainium]

This is exactly what everyone said when some states started to reopen early despite rising cases: it would be even worse for the economy if reopening was a false start, with a steep rise in cases after reopening. It will shake consumer confidence and hurt the economy much more than an effective short-term closure would have been. By reopening too early many states are setting the stage for an even bigger economic catastrophe.

 

[dannyyankou]

Did Apple provide a statement explaining these closures? Gurman's tweet just says that they closed the stores, not why.

 

[az431]

a mask is required to enter the Apple store

I think you missed the point.

 

[now i see it]

California will soon follow.
I don't think the spikes in CoV infections are solely due to not wearing masks — people are interacting with each other more closely now that the lockdown has passed. Businesses are opening and people are going out.
Masks can reduce the likelihood of transmission, but they definitely don't prevent it.

 

[Guda.FL]

To be fair they are testing a lot more now, i have numerous friends who tested positive with zero symptoms. We have many drive through test sites here.

 

[dannyyankou]

California will soon follow

Yeah they reopened way too early

 

[Professor Rucy]

If only Apple had created a contact-tracing app so customers and staff can know whether they are near someone diagnosed with COVID so Apple wouldn’t think they had to close these stores.

Oh, wait... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Vjosullivan]

To be fair they are testing a lot more now, i have numerous friends who tested positive with zero symptoms. We have many drive through test sites here.

Increased testing leads to a more accurate count of actual infections. Not, as some would have you believe, to an excessively inflated count.

 

[TVOR]

Yeah they reopened way too early

I have yet to hear a convincing alternative to ending lockdown from anybody who says "too early"...but I'm always open to ideas. So what do you suggest? Literally keep people locked down and businesses closed until a vaccine arrives...which may never happen? How do you think the global economy would be able to support that?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

To be fair they are testing a lot more now, i have numerous friends who tested positive with zero symptoms. We have many drive through test sites here.

Yes they have increased testing, but the problem is the percentage of positive test results are also rising.

 

[Jamie0003]

I think you missed the point.

I’m pretty sure the spikes are more to do with the thousands out there protesting plus the shops opening way too soon.

 

[lunarworks]

It's almost as if the exact thing experts said would happen is happening. Imagine that.

 

[TVOR]

Increased testing lead to a more accurate count of actual infections. Not, as some would have you believe, to an excessively inflated count.

I actually think that new cases is a largely irrelevant metric at this point. New deaths is the most useful because, as somebody wrote above (and as has been shown in many different studies from all around the world), it seems that many more people have little or no symptoms than end up being affected very badly.

So as you increase testing, you will increase the number of diagnoses of asymptomatic people which shows "infection rates" increasing...but they aren't necessarily increasing at all, you are just picking up more diagnoses. If infection rates keep rising but death rates don't then asymptomatic diagnoses are probably the reason. I would definitely be keeping an eye on the death rates but infections...not so much!

 

[dannyyankou]

I have yet to hear a convincing alternative to ending lockdown from anybody who says "too early"...but I'm always open to ideas. So what do you suggest? Literally keep people locked down and businesses closed until a vaccine arrives...which may never happen? How do you think the global economy would be able to support that?

Do what New York did, test the **** out of everyone, enforce face coverings, and slowly reopen in a phased approach

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I have yet to hear a convincing alternative to ending lockdown from anybody who says "too early"...but I'm always open to ideas. So what do you suggest? Literally keep people locked down and businesses closed until a vaccine arrives...which may never happen? How do you think the global economy would be able to support that?

There’s no vaccine available in New Zealand, but they did the lockdown the right way and now they’re basically back to normal operations.

 

[TVOR]

It's almost as if the exact thing experts said would happen is happening. Imagine that.

People have been coming out of lockdown the world over and very few places are showing increases nationally. Why do you think the US is different at this point?
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There’s no vaccine available in New Zealand, but they did the lockdown the right way and now they’re basically back to normal operations.

New Zealand is a far less populated country. You can't compare one to the other. There will be a degree of overlap but that is such a flawed statement to say "It worked there so it would have worked here"...there are far too many variables.

 

[falainber]

Did Apple provide a statement explaining these closures? Gurman's tweet just says that they closed the stores, not why.

Given the list of stores is it really that difficult to guess what the reasons are? What else potentially it could be?