Apple closes all 53 retail stores in California due to coronavirus surge

Apple Store Seoul (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

Apple has closed all 53 of its retail locations in California.
It has also closed its stores in Greater London, Mexico, and Brazil.

Reported by Bloomberg, Apple has temporarily closed all of its retail locations in California and greater London as the coronavirus pandemic surges. It had originally closed all of its stores in the Los Angeles area, but shortly after the company expanded the closings to all 53 locations in the state. Apple has not said when it will be able to open the stores again.

California has been the center of the pandemic in the U.S. in recent weeks. Total cases in the state passed the 1.8 million mark on Saturday, when it added 43,608 new infections and 272 deaths, for a total of 22,432 fatalities. The move also include Apple's retail stores at its offices in Silicon Valley. It marks one of the largest string of closures for Apple's stores since the beginning of the pandemic in March.

Apple Express Store Burlingame (Image credit: Marci Harris)

The United Kingdom has been dealing with a new, faster-spreading strain of the coronavirus, with multiple countries banning travel to and from the country. In a statement, Apple says that it is taking "an abundance of caution" out of concern for its employees and customers with the new closures.

"Due to current Covid-19 conditions in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas. 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."

The company is also closing its Apple Stores in Mexico and Brazil as cases continue to rise in each of those countries as well. Apple has been converting a ton of its retail stores to Express formats that let customers pick up online orders and drop off devices for Genius Bar appointments, but these areas have become so concerning that the company has made the decision to completely close them for now.

Customers who would like to make a purchase can still shop online and even receive as fast as two-hour shipping in some areas.

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.