Despite the holiday season and the expected surge in holiday shoppers, Apple has reportedly decided to bring back COVID restrictions in its stores. Across the Apple Stores in the United States of America, Apple will mandate all visitors and employees to wear a mask, and even limit the number of customers.
As Omicron variant spreads across the world, Apple is not taking any chances. The iPhone maker will reinstate the restrictions which were in place earlier to limit the spread of Coronavirus. The restrictions and rules are applicable to all the Apple Stores across the U.S. It is not immediately clear if the company will deploy similar restrictions in its other stores located around the world.
While other companies, businesses, and retail enterprises may find it difficult to implement or reimplement any restrictions, Apple has been playing it safe from the beginning. The company had limited store occupancy in its retail locations, but had never completely abandoned any safety precautions. However, the company was considering relaxing the mask mandate last month.
Apple stores across the U.S. are returning to requiring face masks as Covid-19 cases surge. The new mask mandate will apply to all customers and employees, the company said. https://t.co/GEhTyPKWnK
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 14, 2021
According to a Bloomberg report, some analysts predicted Apple may have earned a revenue of about $118 billion during the fourth and final quarter of 2021. However, the reapplied restrictions could have a noticeable and concerning dent in the figure.
While Apple is one of the first few companies to reportedly circulate an internal memo, many states in America, including California and New York have already reinstated indoor mask mandates.