Apple Announces Closure of Its Retail Stores Outside China ‘to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19’

© AP Photo / Mark LennihanApple logo
Apple logo - Sputnik International
Subscribe
On Friday, Apple announced that it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June in “an entirely new online format” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook tweeted on Saturday that the company will temporarily close all of its retail stores outside China until 27 March in a bid to "prevent the spread of COVID-19", also known as the coronavirus.

The announcement comes after Apple said in a statement on Friday that “as of today, all of our stores in Greater China have reopened”.

In the statement, Apple also pointed out that it is “taking additional steps to protect our team members and customers” now that “rates of new infections continue to grow in other places”.

“Extensive, deep cleaning will continue at all sites. In all our offices, we are rolling out new health screenings and temperature checks”, the statement stressed, adding that Apple is “matching our employee donations two-to-one to support COVID-19 response efforts locally, nationally, and internationally”.

Apple also announced that it "will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) scheduled for June in “an entirely new online format”.

The WWDC is typically held to announce Apple’s new products and software features.

Earlier, it was reported that the first day of this year’s conference will see the presentation of new versions of the operating systems iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, there are already more than 145,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in 123 countries across the world. The death toll currently stands at 5,429, with the number of those who have recovered now exceeding 71,700.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала