- Apple has re-closed a handful of stores across the United States in areas that are experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases.
- On Wednesday, Apple said it would close seven stores in the Houston, Texas area, after it already closed stores elsewhere on Friday.
- The closings suggest Apple relies on available data on coronavirus cases as yet another indicator of whether its stores should remain open than reopening plans in place across the country.
- That’s important because Apple’s decisions have in some cases avoided broader measures that have been put in place to control the outbreak.
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About a month after Apple began reopening some stores in the United States, it is once again closing a handful of locations in states like Texas, Florida, and Arizona, among others, where coronavirus cases have skyrocketed.
Apple said Thursday that it would re-close 14 stores in Florida as COVID-19 rates increase according to CNBC, after it decided to close seven stores in Texas on Wednesday and 11 stores in Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida last Friday. That brings the total number of re-closed Apple stores in the United States to 32. The United States also experienced its highest number of new coronavirus cases in a single day with more than 36,000 new cases on Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.
The decision to re-close Texas stores in the Houston area also came just before Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday that the state would stop new phases of reopening as it responds to growing cases of COVID-19.
It’s a critical decision that suggests Apple relies on available data on coronavirus cases and its continued spread as the biggest indicator of whether its stores should remain open, not just the reopening plans being implemented in these states.
In other words, just because Apple stores can stay open doesn’t mean the company necessarily believes they should. And that’s important because Apple’s movements have in some cases anticipated broader measures in the past when the coronavirus initially began disrupting daily life in the U.S.
The 50 states across the country have reopened to some capacity under restrictions, with rules that vary by region. States where Apple has closed stores again were some of the first to lift their stay-at-home orders.
Texas, for example, lifted its order to stay home on April 30, while Florida expired on May 4 and Arizona lifted on May 15. South Carolina lifted its restrictions on staying home on May 4, and North Carolina began to open more widely on May 22.
States like New York and New Jersey, once the epicenter of the outbreak, as well as Pennsylvania and New Hampshire waited until the end of May or June to begin any kind of reopening. (Some states, like Georgia and Alabama, lifted all restrictions much earlier, and others like Wyoming and Oklahoma never issued state-to-stay orders throughout the state.)
These states that reopened before or never had restrictions: Texas, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Wyoming and Oklahoma, are also among the 29 states where recently reported cases have increased in the last 14 days. June 25, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas also reported new highs for coronavirus hospitalizations as of June 23, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.
The decision to re-close stores also shows that Apple is committing to the strategy it outlined last month, when it said it could close stores again if necessary.
“We look at all available data, including local cases, short and long-term trends, and guidance from national and local health officials,” said Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail and people at Apple, in a last letter. month. “These are not decisions we are rushing to, and opening a store in no way means that we will not take the precautionary step of closing it again if local conditions warrant it.”
Apple’s decision-making throughout the pandemic has generally been ahead of the curve. In March, Apple made the unprecedented decision to close all of its retail stores outside of China days before block orders were implemented across much of the U.S.
It also restricted employee travel to Italy and Korea on March 3, as Bloomberg first reported, just days before the number of new daily cases began to increase significantly in Europe and the rest of Asia.
Apple’s proximity to China, its third largest market and where much of its supply chain is based, may have given the company an advantage in handling the virus. His ties to the country probably mean he was paying close attention to the coronavirus long before it disrupted daily life in the US Apple was also able to apply its insights on how to deal with the pandemic in China to other parts of the world, including United States, as the virus spread.
“What we have learned together has helped us all develop best practices that are greatly helping our global response,” wrote Apple CEO Tim Cook in March.
That doesn’t mean that Apple’s recent store closings are a sign that the economy will shut down as it did during March and April, when the pandemic was worse. President Trump said it recently.
What it could mean, however, is that although life seems to be starting to return to normal, especially compared to March and April, the coronavirus is far from behind us. According to Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Emergency Health Program, we are still in the first wave of the virus.
“You have to strike a careful balance between keeping everyone at home and continuing to completely suppress COVID-19 transmission and the adverse effects of that on the economy and society, and that’s not an easy balance,” Ryan recently said during a half instructions. “This is a public health dilemma, and it must be carefully managed and balanced by every government every minute of every day.”
