Apple to close 11 of its stores in 4 U.S. states as COVID-19 cases continue to rise

In a statement on Friday, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) announced that it has decided in favour of temporarily closing some of its U.S. stores again in multiple locations including Arizona, Florida, and North and South Carolina. The company attributed the move to the rising Coronavirus cases in the United States. Apple’s announcement fuelled a sharp decline in Wall Street on Friday.

Shares of the company are currently more than 1% down on Friday. At £282 per share, Apple is more than 15% up year to date in the stock market after recovering from a low of £181.50 per share in March. Learn more about swing trading.

Apple joins the battle against racial injustice

COVID-19 has so far infected a little under 2.3 million people in the U.S. and caused more than 120,000 deaths. To minimise the fast spread of the novel flu-like virus, the tech giant said that the right thing to do is to shut the stores again for the public. Apple also joined hands with YouTube and PayPal last week and pledged £590 million (combined) to enhanced efforts for racial justice and equity.

The iPhone maker said that the decision will affect 11 of its stores in total in the four U.S. states. Apple had slowly started reopening its U.S. stores for the public in the last week of May as state governments started easing COVID-19 restrictions. Many of its stores resorted to curbside pickup while a few also resumed walk-in service. Apple also struck a £56.62 million deal with Sony Pictures in late May.

Apple’s head of diversity and inclusion resigns

Retail Chief Deirdre O’Brien of the American technology company, however, informed the customers in May that the possibility of reclosing the stores remains on the table as Apple continues to analyse the local data on a day to day basis. O’Brien said:

“These are not decisions we rush into – and a store opening in no way means that we won’t take the preventative step of closing it again should local conditions warrant.”

In separate news, Apple announced the departure of its head of diversity and inclusion, Christie Smith, earlier this week.  

Apple’s performance was largely upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual increase of almost 100%. At the time of writing, the Cupertino-based tech giant has a market cap of £1.22 trillion and a price to earnings ratio of 27.35.