Apple is no longer just closing one store in China over coronavirus worries — Apple is closing them all. The company is shutting down all its corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in mainland China through February 9th, according to a statement provided to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
Now that the coronavirus outbreak has killed over 200 people in China, infected nearly 10,000 worldwide, been declared a global public health emergency, triggered the first mandatory CDC quarantine in the United States in 50 years and bans on foreign nationals returning from China, and pushed many airlines to temporarily suspend all flights to the country, it makes sense that Apple would close these buildings out of caution.
It’s not clear if Apple’s Chinese factories, run by Foxconn, will also be shutting down and more factory workers dismissed. We’ve asked both Apple and Foxconn. As of Tuesday, Foxconn told us it would still be operating on a holiday schedule and didn’t anticipate any impact in production.
Nintendo, which consoles in China, has said that the coronavirus is already impacting production of the Nintendo Switch game console, according to the Kyoto Shimbun. Apple says its online store will remain open. Below, find a Google-translated image of its retail store page in China, confirming the closures.
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