Apple Stores are now open in Australia

Apple closed all of its stores around the world shortly after the coronavirus outbreak began, as most businesses had to, and since March of this year until recently, only its stores in China were reopened.

But rumors of reopenings in other regions began floating around lately, after Apple's senior vice president of retail and people Deidre O'Brien reportedly told employees that stores are expected to start opening in May.

Now, in the second week of May, the Cupertino company has reopened all of its 20 Apple Stores in Australia, with social distancing and no-contact temperature checks being mandatory inside. In addition, staff and working hours are currently reduced.

Earlier in April, some of the Apple Store workers assigned to one of the 458 then-closed retail stores were being asked to work from home, with the company offering to send them the 27-inch Mac, as long as the employees could set up a quiet room with a strong internet connection as their home office environment.

Since the closing of Apple's retail stores, the company saw a significant dip in revenue, as the coronavirus created a global decline of smartphone demand and shipments for the first months of 2020, affecting most major and smaller smartphone brands.

As previously mentioned, the retail Apple Stores in China were first to reopen, on March 13th, and while the COVID-19 pandemic was happening, Apple was vocal in its support towards China's efforts to contain the virus, as well as towards many groups around the globe directly working against its spread. Several donations from the Cupertino giant towards Chinese hospitals and worldwide organizations followed, helping aid the more affected regions in their efforts against the virus.