New Lockdown Measures Close All Remaining Apple Stores in the UK

Tuesday January 5, 2021 2:08 am PST by Tim Hardwick

Apple has temporarily closed all of its stores in the United Kingdom, as England and most of Scotland enter new lockdowns to curb a steep rise in coronavirus cases thought to be caused by a new strain.

edinburgh store closed
Announced on Monday by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the new lockdowns close all schools and non-essential shops, and mean people must stay indoors other than for limited exceptions, such as essential medical needs, food shopping, exercise, and work that cannot be done at home.

In England, the strict rules are to be enforced until at least mid-February, while in Scotland they apply on the mainland until the end of January, and will be kept under review. Northern Ireland went into lockdown on December 26, while Wales has been in a nationwide lockdown since December 20, so Apple stores there were already closed before the holidays, as noted by 9to5Mac's Michael Steeber.

All 18 UK Apple Stores open today will close from January 5. Includes every location in Scotland. Most of the other 20 stores closed just before the holidays. pic.twitter.com/RYfhWgNkrb — Michael Steeber (@MichaelSteeber) January 4, 2021

With local tiered restrictions in force since early November, many of Apple's retail locations had already been operating on a click-and-collect basis only with Express Pickup. However, the new lockdown rules are the harshest the U.K. has seen since the spring, and all non-essential stores must once again close. The new rules come after the U.K. reported a record 58,784 cases on Monday, as well as a further 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

Update: Apple has informed MacRumors of an update to its holiday returns policy which means customers seeking to return products purchased in-store will still be able to do so whenever the lockdowns end and stores reopen.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: COVID-19 Coronavirus Guide, United Kingdom

Top Rated Comments

seek3r

76 months ago

As an aside, I understand it's difficult to determine the cause of death sometimes - especially for those who die outside of a hospital or care home - but the UK is counting deaths within 28 days of a positive test (as are many other countries). That includes everyone who tests positive then gets hit by a bus within 28 days. 28 days is an arbitrary number. Could've been 14, 21, 50... The numbers of deaths are arbitrary. Still frighteningly high, but that's the fault of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson's useless government and ministers.

It may come as a shock to you but doctors arent completely stupid. If someone gets hit by a bus and they had COV19 but die directly from the trauma, like blood loss on scene, the cause of death is the bus, not COV19 (the exception to that could be something like they were hospitalized and stable and then died of respiratory failure because of COV19, where the possible primary cause is COV19 exacerbated by physical trauma, but typically even that will be reported as a trauma death as it's likely the trauma would be viewed as the primary cause).

The right wing talking point you're trying to reiterate, even worse than the original if that's possible, has to do with comorbidities where, yes, someone with, say, COPD who gets COV19 and dies from respiratory failure is a COV19 death. That's because very few people die of any one thing on its own, outside of, say, major trauma (like getting hit by a bus) and the primary cause is the most important part in COV19 reporting. But no one is reporting bus accidents as COV19 deaths, in the UK, in the US, or anywhere else (and I'm sure right wingers will jump on this post with some example of one misreported death, but statistically that's not happening)

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Apple Knowledge Navigator

76 months ago

Look in the bright side - the UK currently has more people vaccinated than all of EU combined. Good job folks!

Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ducknalddon

76 months ago

As an aside, I understand it's difficult to determine the cause of death sometimes - especially for those who die outside of a hospital or care home - but the UK is counting deaths within 28 days of a positive test (as are many other countries). That includes everyone who tests positive then gets hit by a bus within 28 days. 28 days is an arbitrary number. Could've been 14, 21, 50...

It also excludes anybody who was tested positive then took more than 28 days to die. It is arbitrary but it assuming it is meaningless because it isn't perfect is a mistake. It gives us an indication of the direction of travel.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

mazz0

76 months ago

Despicable government overreach.

Have a look yourself. Mountains of evidence that the lockdowns are not justified. @IvorCummins ('https://twitter.com/fatemperor?s=21')

Rather inefficient for you to suggest that everybody who reads your post goes and duplicates effort finding evidence you already have. Why don't you just share it?

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

farewelwilliams

76 months ago

don't worry guys, it's just like the flu

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

seek3r

76 months ago

Rather inefficient for you to suggest that everybody who reads you're post goes and duplicates effort finding evidence you already have. Why don't you just share it?

"dO yOuR rEsEaRcH" is the mating call of people who don't know what research is and whose "evidence" comes from youtube videos of dudes with big beards and visible handguns ranting in their oversized trucks. They don't have any evidence

(I havent had coffee yet this morning, my patience level with science deniers is low)

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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