Apple to close all retail stores until March 27

Apple has announced it will close all of its retail stores worldwide for two weeks until March 27.

In a press release Apple said:

We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27. We are committed to providing exceptional service to our customers. Our online stores are open at www.apple.com, or you can download the Apple Store app on the App Store. For service and support, customers can visit support.apple.com. I want to thank our extraordinary Retail teams for their dedication to enriching our customers' lives. We are all so grateful to you. In all of our offices, we are moving to flexible work arrangements worldwide outside of Greater China. That means team members should work remotely if their job allows, and those whose work requires them to be on site should follow guidance to maximize interpersonal space. Extensive, deep cleaning will continue at all sites. In all our offices, we are rolling out new health screenings and temperature checks.

The news is, of course, a response to the COVID-19 outbreak, which Apple said "is affecting every one of us". Apple said the global effort to protect the most vulnerable "requires all of our care and all of our participation."

Apple has also donated more than $15 million to the global response and is matching employee donations two-to-one.

All of Apple's hourly workers will receive pay in alignment with business as usual operations, and leave policies have been expanded to accommodate anyone with personal or family health problems caused by the virus.

Yesterday, Apple announced that its WWDC 2020 conference would take place in June in an all-new online format.