Apple will reopen its first retail store outside of China after weeks of closures because of the coronavirus
- Apple is re-opening a retail store in South Korea, making it the first store outside of China to re-open during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Apple said in March that it would be closing all stores outside of China indefinitely to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
- Apple has also begun asking some retail employees to work from home in tech support and sales roles as stores remain closed.
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An Apple retail store in South Korea will open again on Saturday, marking the first of the company's roughly 500 stores outside of China to re-open since the tech giant closed its stores indefinitely.
Apple's retail store located on the city of Seoul in South Korea will open on April 18 with special operating hours, according to Apple's website. The opening was first noticed by blog 9to5Mac.
Apple said in mid-March that it would temporarily close all of its retail stores outside of China because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The company had initially planned to only keep its stores closed until March 27, but posted a notice on its website a few days later saying locations would be closed until further notice.
Apple has since begun asking some retail employees to work from home in tech support and sales roles while physical locations remain closed. The decision to re-open the location in Seoul comes just after Apple announced a new iPhone called the iPhone SE on Wednesday.
The number of coronavirus cases in South Korea has dropped over time, but some patients that were cleared of the virus have begun to test positive again.
Apple has not said when it plans to re-open Apple Stores more broadly. An Apple representative did not immediately respond to Business Insider's question about its plans to re-open stores.
In addition to moving forward with product launches and other business operations, Apple has also devoted resources toward COVID-19 relief efforts. It's tapped teams across the company to assemble face shields for health care workers in the United States, for example, and is collaborating with Google on a Bluetooth contact tracing system powered by smartphones.
Are you a current Apple Store employee? Business Insider wants to hear from you. Contact this reporter at leadicicco@businessinsider.com
