Apple closes shops to clients in New York Metropolis resulting from Covid surge

Apple closed its shops to indoor buyer site visitors at its New York Metropolis retail places Monday resulting from an increase in Covid-19 instances within the metropolis. However these ordering on-line aren’t restricted from choosing up merchandise exterior these shops, the corporate web site indicated Monday.

The response follows a spike in Covid-19 instances because of the quickly spreading omicron variant. It is not identified how lengthy the closures will final.

The transfer, which impacts 11 places in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island, does not quantity to an entire shuttering of shops like the corporate has achieved up to now to gradual the unfold of the virus.

Apple closed all of its U.S. retail places in early 2020 in response to the preliminary wave of the coronavirus pandemic. After reopening, the corporate carried out designated sanitation areas for purchasers and requested staff to put on masks. Its retail staff even have had entry to weekly at-home checks.

However with the brand new, extra contagious variant of the virus, Apple is tightening its insurance policies. The corporate stated two weeks in the past clients can be required to put on masks when visiting retail places. Beforehand, Apple solely required masks in areas that imposed mandates.

Earlier this month, Apple quickly closed shops in Miami, Ottawa, Ontario, and Annapolis, Md., resulting from rising instances.

“We recurrently monitor circumstances and we’ll alter our well being measures to assist the well-being of shoppers and staff,” the corporate stated in an announcement Monday. “We stay dedicated to a complete strategy for our groups that mixes common testing with day by day well being checks, worker and buyer masking, deep cleansing and paid sick go away.”

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