Apple announced in a statement that it has decided to temporarily close most of its retail stores outside Greater China for two weeks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus(Covid-19).

”We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO in the official statement. ”One of those lessons is that the most effective way to minimize risk of the virus’s transmission is to reduce density and maximize social distance,” he added.

Apple has nearly 460 stores across 21 countries outside of China, including about 270 stores in the U.S. ”In our workplaces and communities, we must do all we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Cook said on Twitter.

After the starting of Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, Apple has closed its factories and stores in this country on February 1 and then applied the same measure for Spain and Italy, which were heavily affected by coronavirus. Apple also annouced the reopenning of all of its stores in Greater China as of March 13.

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”Apple’s committed donations to the global COVID-19 response, both to help treat those who are sick and to help lessen the economic and community impacts of the pandemic, reached $15 million worldwide,” said in the statement.