Apple closes all New York City stores amid rising COVID-19 cases

Apple Inc said on it had closed all of its 7 New York City retail stores due to an increase in COVID-19 cases as the Omicron variant rages across the United States.

Customers will be able to pick up online orders at the stores, an Apple spokesperson said.

The closed stores include outlets at Fifth Avenue, Grand Central and SoHo.

Earlier this month, Apple said it had temporarily closed three stores in the United States and Canada after a rise in COVID-19 cases and exposures among the stores' employees.

For the same reason, Apple also mandated that all its customers and employees wear masks at its US retail stores.

Globally, concerns over the Omicron variant have prompted major companies to tighten their protocols.

Increasing cases has also resulted in reinstatement of a nationwide vaccine-or-testing COVID-19 mandate for large businesses which covers 80 million American workers by a U.S. appeals court earlier this month. Opponents of the move have rushed to the Supreme Court to ask it to intervene.

-reuters- 

5 cases of Omicron variant confirmed in New York state: governor

NEW YORK—The state of New York has confirmed 5 cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday, bringing the total number of US detections of the new strain to 8.

"New York State has confirmed 5 cases of the Omicron variant," Hochul said in a Twitter post aimed at reassuring residents of the nation's fourth most populous state that the detections were not unexpected.

"Let me be clear: This is not cause for alarm. We knew this variant was coming and we have the tools to stop the spread," she said.

"Get your vaccine. Get your booster. Wear your mask."

It was not immediately clear whether the new cases were in or near New York City -- the country's most populous metropolitan area -- and whether they were detected in people who had recently returned from traveling outside the country.

Eight cases have so far been confirmed in the United States, with at least one, in Minnesota, involving a person with no recent international travel history, signaling the strain is already circulating inside the country.

Hochul's figures followed the announcement by President Joe Biden that he is bolstering his administration's campaign against COVID-19 as the winter takes hold.

The new measures include requiring all inbound international travelers be tested within 1 day of flying, and an extension of mask mandates on public transportation through mid-March.

Agence France-Presse