With the number of COVID-19 cases rising in some states across the U.S. Apple (AAPL 0.46%) has moved to re-close some of its stores.
In a statement to the media, Apple said it’s closing a total of eleven stores in response to rising cases of COVID-19. Two are located around Naples, Florida, while two are in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. One Apple store is located in Greenville, South Carolina, and six others are in Arizona, reported the Wall Street Journal.
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“We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible,” an Apple spokesman told the WSJ.
In May the tech stock began opening its U.S. stores that had been closed since March when shelter-in-place orders were issued by cities around the country. It already has a number of safety protocols in place including conducting temperature checks of shoppers, requiring all customers to wear face masks, and keeping the number of visitors in its stores limited to abide by social distancing rules. Earlier in the week Apple had said its gearing up to re-open its New York City store. It targeted having 200 stores open by this weekend.
News of Apple’s plan to re-close a handful of stores hurt the broader markets as investors worried about the fragile nature of the economic recovery after states began reopening again. According to the WSJ, about a dozen states have reported an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases at a pace that's faster than a week prior. Texas, North Carolina, and Arizona are among the states to report upticks in the number of pandemic hospitalizations and Florida is becoming a new hotspot for the disease.
