An Apple Store in Texas is temporarily shutting down due to an outbreak of COVID-19 cases among employees. According to report from NBC News, Apple Southlake Town Square will be closed through the end of this week due to the outbreak.
The report explains that the Apple Store in Southlake has faced an outbreak of COVID-19 cases among staff members, with at least 22 positive cases since Black Friday on November 26. The store has 151 employees in total.
This isn’t the first time an Apple Store has been forced to shut down due to an outbreak of COVID-19. Earlier this year, an Apple Store in Charleston briefly shutdown after more than 20 employees were exposed to COVID-19.
NBC spoke with four current and former employees at the Southlake store who said they’ve received calls from their manager encouraging them to come to work, even when they called out sick. In two of these cases, the employee had taken the Covid-19 survey and the results said not to come in. The manager did not respond to requests for comment from NBC.
Jeff Miller, who has worked at the Apple store in Southlake for three years, said the store has been getting busier throughout the pandemic. “There were several occasions prior to Black Friday where I expressed concern about the inability to maintain even a semblance of social distancing,” he explained. “Then all hell broke loose on Black Friday.”
Last month, Apple announced that it was dropping the mask mandate at the majority of its retail stores for customers. Employees, however, are still required to wear face coverings.
As of right now, Apple Southlake Town Square is set to reopen to the public on Monday at 10:00 a.m. The full report at NBC News is well worth a read and can be found here.
