Apple has shut down five Apple Stores in the past three days amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in the United States and Canada. Four of the retail stores are located in the U.S and one in Canada.
In a statement, Apple said that they will adjust our health measures to support the well-being of customers and employees:
“We regularly monitor conditions and we will adjust our health measures to support the well-being of customers and employees, we remain committed to a comprehensive approach for our teams that combines regular testing with daily health checks, employee and customer masking, deep cleaning, and paid sick leave.”
The Cupertino-based giant has said that retail store staff workers will take COVID-19 tests prior to reopenings and are “staying in touch” with affected workers. The stores are located in Annapolis, Maryland; Brickell City Centre in Miami, Florida; Houston, Texas; Cleveland, Ohio; and downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Since the breakout of the pandemic in 2020, The company needed to close down one or two stores to contain the virus in its retail stores. However, closing down at least five Apple Stores in three days shows that a COVID surge is affecting many of its stores in North America thanks to the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
Difficult management in Apple Stores has been a problem for Apple in 2021, earlier this month, Apple closed down its Southlake, Texas retail store due to the widespread of COVID-19. In November, Apple refused to let customers into Apple Stores in Turkey due to the intensifying local economic crisis.
