What you need to know
- Apple has put several measures in place.
- It hopes to prevent the spreading of coronavirus.
- It's limiting the number of people who can enter its stores.
Apple has put several measures in place in an attempt to try and prevent the spreading of coronavirus. It's starting to limit Genius Bar appointments in an attempt to cut down on the number of people in its stores, but it's also taking things further, too.
According to a new AppleInsider report, Apple has started to restrict the number of people who enter its stores as a whole. And those who are in the store are not being encouraged to hang around. Apple has long tried to make Apple Stores a gathering place of sorts, so this move is very much against usual policy.
According to multiple sources speaking to AppleInsider, Apple will be operating its stores "below capacity," limiting the number of customers who can enter a store at any time. By restricting the number of customers, this will in theory keep the density of customers down in stores, reducing the chance of contact and virus spread.To encourage customers to avoid loitering and to reduce the number of surfaces that may come into contact with the virus, Apple has also instructed stores to cut down the amount of seating for customers by half. Store employees are instructed to keep at least one meter away from each other, as well as from the customers.
The new measures went into effect yesterday – to different degrees – at Apple Stores across the globe. It's also possible that Apple will decide to limit store opening hours in some countries, as it did in China.
