Apple is temporarily closing all 53 of its stores in California and at least a dozen others elsewhere in the nation as COVID-19 cases continue to climb.
The shutdowns will occur just days before Christmas, one of the highest-volume shopping times of the year.
“Due to current COVID-19 conditions in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas,” Apple said in a statement obtained by Bloomberg Saturday. “We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible.”
A message from Apple on the websites of its California stores warned customers that the outlets were “temporarily closing soon.” But they will remain open for pickup of existing online orders, scheduled in-store Genius support and for previously reserved one-on-one shopping sessions until Tuesday.
California has become the COVID-19 hotspot of the nation in recent weeks with 1.8 million cases and more than 22,000 deaths. Average daily cases are numbering more than 40,000.
Apple is also closing stores in Tennessee, Utah, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Alaska and New Mexico, USA Today reported. In addition, it has shut down outlets in Mexico, Brazil and London, where stringent coronavirus restrictions have been put in place as cases of a dangerous new variant of COVID-19 surge.
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