Omicron: Apple reinstates mask-wearing mandate at retail stores

You must wear a mask to shop with Apple

Readers with long memories may recall at the height of the pandemic last year Apple store opening status became a pretty good guide to Coronavirus outbreaks. Apple’s retail teams held excellent global data on the ground. So it should mean something to most readers that Apple has re-introduced a mask mandate across all its stores.

Wear a mask

What this means is that if you want to shop in an Apple Store you’ll be expected to wear a mask. Apple is the first U.S. retailer to do this, though in other nations the latest outbreak sees most retailers moving in this direction. California, New York, Oregon, New Mexico, Washington, Illinois, Nevada and Hawaii all require masks be worn on a state level.

Though a minority of customers still want to spread the virus until they get sick.

Apple dropped the mask mandate in the US around a month ago. The company also said it intends monitoring and managing store capacity to keep customer safe.

We want you around, so stay safe

Why is Apple doing it?

Quite simply, because we have a new outbreak in town. Where I live in an inner city town, Omicron already means diagnosed infections have climbed just shy of 200% in the last seven days and patients admitted to local hospitals have increased by over a third.

Given the lag between infection and hospitalization, that’s a bad sign.

Lives remain at stake. In California, we’ve seen a 47% increase in Covid-19 case rates in the last two weeks while in New York case rates have also increased rapidly.

What next?

Look after yourselves, your friends, neighbours, and family, I guess.

One more thing? If you expected to return to the office early in 2022, I think you may need to make different plans. Now quickly make sure you know how to add your Covid pass to your iPhone wallet.

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