Apple closes all of its Chinese stores and offices amidst the Coronavirus outbreak

In an announcement on Saturday, Apple Inc. declared that all of its Chinese stores and offices are to be remain closed till February 9^th. The move is directed at taking time for the Coronavirus outbreak to be contained. In an event that the health emergency persists, Apple is likely to extend it further than February 9^th. According to the official data, Coronavirus confirmed cases are approaching a count of 10K in China with the death toll having surpassed 250.

McDonald’s And Starbucks To Keep Stores Shut Amidst The Virus Outbreak

With the outbreak stemming into various provinces of China and cases being confirmed in multiple other countries as well, business sentiment is expected to take a huge hit in the first quarter of 2020 in China. Apple is not the only one who has decided in favor of closing its stores and offices. Just earlier this week, McDonald’s and Starbucks had also announced that the stores will remain closed unless the health experts give a go-ahead.

Domestic companies in China have also started to recommend work from home to their employees and avoid non-essential traveling as much as possible in February. The Lunar New Year holidays have also been extended as a precautionary measure to minimize the spread of the virus. By the end of the week, however, businesses are expected to return to operations.

The announcement on Saturday further highlighted that Apple relies heavily on operations in China since the majority of its suppliers have production houses in China. While Apple has recently printed a largely upbeat quarterly report and the company’s CFO acknowledged the uncertainty in the outlook ahead, analysts are expecting a deeper blow to Apple than previously thought if the disruptions in operations persist.

Tim Cook Says Apple Is Working Diligently To Find An Alternative

Following the earnings report, the CEO of Apple Inc., Tim Cook, also highlighted that the company is working diligently towards finding a solution and assessing alternatives that can help the company avoid its production from being suspended in China amidst the virus outbreak.

In the wake of the fear that the virus outbreak is likely to translate into massive losses for Apple in the current quarter, the stock fell sharply on Friday. Opening at around $321 in the stock market on Friday, share prices were reported as low as $308 in after-hours trading on Friday.