OREANDA-NEWS. Due to the rapid spread of the Omicron strain of the coronavirus, Apple continues to close its stores in the United States. Now the doors of retail outlets have closed to visitors to New York and several other American cities, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, December 28.

According to the agency, customers will be able to receive ordered online products without going inside the stores themselves. Technical Support and Consulting Genius Bar will temporarily not serve customers.

Apple is also closing stores in Washington DC and Los Angeles. Points of sale will not work in some cities in the states of Texas, Ohio, Florida and Georgia. Restrictions in work will affect not only the United States, but also Europe - in particular, a store in London.

“We regularly monitor the situation and will adjust our measures to protect the health and well-being of customers and employees,” the company said yesterday.

Earlier, on December 23, it was reported that the company would temporarily suspend operations of eight stores in Canada and the United States. The measure affected stores in Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Montreal. According to Bloomberg, Apple usually closes a point of sale after 10% of its employees are infected.

The US authorities regularly report hundreds of thousands of cases of coronavirus in the country. On December 27, about 229 thousand new cases were identified, according to data from the statistical office Worldometer. The increase in the number of cases is associated with the spread of "Omicron". It was first recorded in South Africa in November, WHO believes that this variant of COVID-19 lowers the activity of antibodies in the body.