New Lockdown Measures Close All Remaining Apple Stores in the UK

[MacRumors]

Apple has temporarily closed all of its stores in the United Kingdom, as England and most of Scotland enter new lockdowns to curb a steep rise in coronavirus cases thought to be caused by a new strain.

Announced on Monday by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the new lockdowns close all schools and non-essential shops, and mean people must stay indoors other than for limited exceptions, such as essential medical needs, food shopping, exercise, and work that cannot be done at home.

In England, the strict rules are to be enforced until at least mid-February, while in Scotland they apply on the mainland until the end of January, and will be kept under review. Northern Ireland went into lockdown on December 26, while Wales has been in a nationwide lockdown since December 20, so Apple stores there were already closed before the holidays, as noted by 9to5Mac's Michael Steeber.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1346205814848151553

With local tiered restrictions in force since early November, many of Apple's retail locations had already been operating on a click-and-collect basis only with Express Pickup. However, the new lockdown rules are the harshest the U.K. has seen since the spring, and all non-essential stores must once again close. The new rules come after the U.K. reported a record 58,784 cases on Monday, as well as a further 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

Update: Apple has informed MacRumors of an update to its holiday returns policy which means customers seeking to return products purchased in-store will still be able to do so whenever the lockdowns end and stores reopen.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: New Lockdown Measures Close All Remaining Apple Stores in the UK

 

[farewelwilliams]

don't worry guys, it's just like the flu

 

[darkpaw]

This doesn't adversely affect Apple that much in the UK, nor will it affect consumers, as most people will simply order online for free delivery. Sure, they'll miss the occasional walk-in who decides to buy a new phone or an Apple Watch for the first time, but I doubt it's that much of an issue. Also, the government is going to pay 80% of the wages of the staff that Apple may furlough, so Apple will see an 80% reduction in staffing costs for this period.

As an aside, I understand it's difficult to determine the cause of death sometimes - especially for those who die outside of a hospital or care home - but the UK is counting deaths within 28 days of a positive test (as are many other countries). That includes everyone who tests positive then gets hit by a bus within 28 days. 28 days is an arbitrary number. Could've been 14, 21, 50... The numbers of deaths are arbitrary. Still frighteningly high, but that's the fault of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson's useless government and ministers.

 

[yellow8]

Lives first, then buy Apple products in a physical store.
Sounds logic.

 

[Royksöpp]

Oh No! My new iPhone 12 Pro has a yellow screen. How am I ever going to get this fixed?! What is going to happen to my Genius Bar appointment? This is the most important thing in my life right now!

 

[zahuh]

Did Apple write anywhere of the return policy change besides informing Macrumors?

 

[TeamMojo]

Despicable government overreach.

Have a look yourself. Mountains of evidence that the lockdowns are not justified. @IvorCummins

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Look in the bright side - the UK currently has more people vaccinated than all of EU combined. Good job folks!

 

[TantalizedMind]

I just want to see Ghosbusters 3 in theaters.

 

[Reason077]

Apple seems to completely close it’s UK stores during lockdowns. This is different to most other major retailers, which still allow “click & collect” pickup of online orders.

No Apple repair services either, which is considered an essential service and explicitly allowed under lockdown rules.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

The social control mechanism are working better than expected. Wallow in your oppression, plebs!

 

[ducknalddon]

As an aside, I understand it's difficult to determine the cause of death sometimes - especially for those who die outside of a hospital or care home - but the UK is counting deaths within 28 days of a positive test (as are many other countries). That includes everyone who tests positive then gets hit by a bus within 28 days. 28 days is an arbitrary number. Could've been 14, 21, 50...

It also excludes anybody who was tested positive then took more than 28 days to die. It is arbitrary but it assuming it is meaningless because it isn't perfect is a mistake. It gives us an indication of the direction of travel.

 

[Plutonius]

58,784 cases on Monday, as well as a further 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

The way the numbers are reported in the article is somewhat confusing to me.

Were there 58784 new cases on Monday and 407 deaths in the last 28 days ?

Why don't governments give the statistics as a rolling average over the last 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months ?

As it is reported now, I'm not sure if the mortality rate is higher, the same, or lower than when Covid first came out.

If I was to guess, I would predict that the the number of cases is going up while the mortality rate is going down.

 

[2499723]

It’s almost like a series of half-baked ‘tiered’ restrictions were ineffective at both stemming the tide of the virus and protecting businesses. What a shock. This full lockdown should have come before Christmas. Instead, it was apparently better to pander to the “spreading-Covid-is-my-right” brigade, and here we are. Apple will be fine, though. The same may not be true for retail employees and small business owners. Hopefully we can stem the tide until the larger rollout of the vaccines. It’s like the UK and US are in competition for how epically they can fail at their response to a global pandemic. If you have lost friends or family to the virus or have been tangentially impacted by it (e.g. unemployment), you know how frustrating this all is - and depressing, quite frankly. Take care of yourselves and others. ❤️👍

 

[kahkityoong]

It’s almost like a series of half-baked ‘tiered’ restrictions were ineffective at both stemming the tide of the virus and protecting businesses. What a shock. This full lockdown should have come before Christmas. Instead, it was apparently better to pander to the “spreading-Covid-is-my-right” brigade, and here we are. Apple will be fine, though. The same may not be true for retail employees and small business owners. Hopefully we can stem the tide until the larger rollout of the vaccines. It’s like the UK and US are in competition for how epically they can fail at their response to a global pandemic. If you have lost friends or family to the virus or have been tangentially impacted by it (e.g. unemployment), you know how frustrating this all is - and depressing, quite frankly. Take care of yourselves and others. ❤️👍

UK’s response has been terrible. Too slow and too soft. But the worst thing is not to learn from the previous mistakes. Still it’s better than USA’s outright negligence.

 

[seek3r]

As an aside, I understand it's difficult to determine the cause of death sometimes - especially for those who die outside of a hospital or care home - but the UK is counting deaths within 28 days of a positive test (as are many other countries). That includes everyone who tests positive then gets hit by a bus within 28 days. 28 days is an arbitrary number. Could've been 14, 21, 50... The numbers of deaths are arbitrary. Still frighteningly high, but that's the fault of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson's useless government and ministers.

It may come as a shock to you but doctors arent completely stupid. If someone gets hit by a bus and they had COV19 but die directly from the trauma, like blood loss on scene, the cause of death is the bus, not COV19 (the exception to that could be something like they were hospitalized and stable and then died of respiratory failure because of COV19, where the possible primary cause is COV19 exacerbated by physical trauma, but typically even that will be reported as a trauma death as it's likely the trauma would be viewed as the primary cause).

The right wing talking point you're trying to reiterate, even worse than the original if that's possible, has to do with comorbidities where, yes, someone with, say, COPD who gets COV19 and dies from respiratory failure is a COV19 death. That's because very few people die of any one thing on its own, outside of, say, major trauma (like getting hit by a bus) and the primary cause is the most important part in COV19 reporting. But no one is reporting bus accidents as COV19 deaths, in the UK, in the US, or anywhere else (and I'm sure right wingers will jump on this post with some example of one misreported death, but statistically that's not happening)

 

[mazz0]

Despicable government overreach.

Have a look yourself. Mountains of evidence that the lockdowns are not justified. @IvorCummins

Rather inefficient for you to suggest that everybody who reads your post goes and duplicates effort finding evidence you already have. Why don't you just share it?

 

[snipr125]

Look in the bright side - the UK currently has more people vaccinated than all of EU combined. Good job folks!

Yes just over a million people vaccinated in the UK, with more each day. Now the Oxford Zenica vaccine had been approved, vaccinations will ramp up further. Im lucky as my elderly parents had their first pfiezer jab about 3 weeks ago, so at least i know they are somewhat safe now, and puts my mind at rest a bit.

 

[seek3r]

Rather inefficient for you to suggest that everybody who reads you're post goes and duplicates effort finding evidence you already have. Why don't you just share it?

"dO yOuR rEsEaRcH" is the mating call of people who don't know what research is and whose "evidence" comes from youtube videos of dudes with big beards and visible handguns ranting in their oversized trucks. They don't have any evidence

(I havent had coffee yet this morning, my patience level with science deniers is low)

 

[RobbieTT]

It also excludes anybody who was tested positive then took more than 28 days to die. It is arbitrary but it assuming it is meaningless because it isn't perfect is a mistake. It gives us an indication of the direction of travel.

We also have the figures as recorded by the (vigorously independent) UK coroners and published by the ONS. These are the exact numbers of UK covid deaths (minus those missing from the very early stages) but due to the rigorous and methodical process used there is a considerable delay when compared to the NHS daily figures used for the 'direction of travel'.

Using the figures for England and Wales alone certified covid deaths are well-above the sum total of NHS daily deaths so there is zero chance of the 28-day rule / indicative figures over-reporting covid deaths.

 

[NBAasDOGG]

don't worry guys, it's just like the flu

Start to compare the numbers one year after the vaccinations.

 

[PlainviewX]

Why don't you just share it?

No thanks. I don't want to follow links to 4Chan, 8Kun, Parlor, etc.

 

[IIGS User]

don't worry guys, it's just like the flu

Which flu? Who in the UK said this?

 

[Phil A.]

The way the numbers are reported in the article is somewhat confusing to me.

Were there 58784 new cases on Monday and 407 deaths in the last 28 days ?

Why don't governments give the statistics as a rolling average over the last 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months ?

As it is reported now, I'm not sure if the mortality rate is higher, the same, or lower than when Covid first came out.

If I was to guess, I would predict that the the number of cases is going up while the mortality rate is going down.

The death figures are people who died on that day with a positive diagnosis in the last 28 days so 407 people died on Monday within 28 days of having been diagnosed

In other words, if someone catches Covid and dies 14 days later (for whatever reason), they will be included in the daily figures for the day they died

This does skew the figures by an unknown amount as if someone catches covid and then gets run over they will still be included in the death figures on the day they died.

However, this is offset by the fact that if someone catches Covid and dies 29 or more days later they won't be included in any death figures at all

So, it's really more of an indication of how bad things are than 100% accurate figures, but it is a daily number

 

[gnasher729]

The way the numbers are reported in the article is somewhat confusing to me.

Were there 58784 new cases on Monday and 407 deaths in the last 28 days ?

Why don't governments give the statistics as a rolling average over the last 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months ?

As it is reported now, I'm not sure if the mortality rate is higher, the same, or lower than when Covid first came out.

If I was to guess, I would predict that the the number of cases is going up while the mortality rate is going down.

407 deaths _were reported_ yesterday (Monday). The data was collected the day before (Sunday). Since lots of people collecting data don't work on Saturday / Sunday, the numbers published on Sunday and Monday are always a lot lower, and then jump up on Tuesday. Since lots of people have a room temperature IQ (fortunately in Fahrenheit), every Sunday / Monday we have calls "the virus is disappearing / it's a hoax" followed by "we are all going to die" on Tuesday. Every single week since March.

Note that deaths follow new cases usually with about two to three weeks delay. You don't catch Covid today and drop dead tomorrow. And mortality rates change, for example if 18-20 year olds go back to university and infect each other then the mortality is low; as these brainless people infect people at more risky ages, mortality goes up.