Apple closing seven Apple Stores in Texas due to COVID-19 spikes
Apple is closing seven of its Apple Stores in Texas as a response to a COVID-19 flare-up in the state.
![Apple Store Highland Village in Houston, Texas](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/36405-67695-40F7C6FA-D612-429B-AFB1-0004A9112480-l.jpg)
Apple Store Highland Village in Houston, Texas
The Cupertino tech giant had begun reopening select U.S. retail locations in May with new social distancing and hygiene measures. Apple shuttered all of its U.S. locations due to coronavirus in March.
Apple's closures of Texas stores is the second round of actions following a local resurgence of coronavirus cases.
"Due to current Covid-19 conditions in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas. We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible," Apple said previously in a statement about store closures.
The following Apple Stores will be closed until further notice:
![Apple Store Highland Village in Houston, Texas](https://photos5.appleinsider.com/gallery/36405-67695-40F7C6FA-D612-429B-AFB1-0004A9112480-l.jpg)
Apple Store Highland Village in Houston, Texas
The Cupertino tech giant had begun reopening select U.S. retail locations in May with new social distancing and hygiene measures. Apple shuttered all of its U.S. locations due to coronavirus in March.
Apple's closures of Texas stores is the second round of actions following a local resurgence of coronavirus cases.
"Due to current Covid-19 conditions in some of the communities we serve, we are temporarily closing stores in these areas. We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible," Apple said previously in a statement about store closures.
The following Apple Stores will be closed until further notice:
- Baybrook in Friendswood, Texas
- First Colony Mall in Sugar Land, Texas
- Highland Village in Houston, Texas
- Houston Galleria in Houston, Texas
- Memorial City in Houston, Texas
- Willowbrook Mall in Houston, Texas
- The Woodlands in Woodlands, Texas
Comments
Your last paragraph is a false dichotomy which is a logically fallacy. Our options are limited to exist as is or hide at home for the rest of our lives.
So, the answer is most definitely, yes, there is a significant uptick in hospitalisations. Let's hope the states experiencing surges can get this back under control, and quick. Sadly, some seem to be defending the US' #1 position of infections and deaths vigorously, but sometimes you just can't fix stupid.
Even the governor that has downplayed the virus and has rushed to reopen Texas in early May, is now calling for people to stay home:
https://www.click2houston.com/news/texas/2020/06/24/texas-governor-says-state-facing-massive-covid-19-outbreak-expects-state-to-pass-5000-new-cases-again-wednesday/
Houston area is at near capacity in hospitals. Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio metro areas have had significant increases in cases and hospitalizations.
Texas has had 5x increase in daily positive cases since reopening, and is now #5 in the nation on number of cases:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/texas-coronavirus-cases.html
Also WHO clarified their comments to indicate the difference between asymptomatic and presymptomatic:
On Tuesday, Van Kerkhove and her colleague Mike Ryan, MD, executive director for health emergencies at the WHO, explained that there are two distinct kinds of silent transmission: “asymptomatic” (spreading a disease when you don’t have symptoms) and “presymptomatic” (spreading it before symptoms start). Both are difficult to stop. Presymptomatic spread is believed to be far more common than asymptomatic spread.
Van Kerkhove said published and unpublished studies discussed in WHO briefings suggest that between 6% and 41% of people who test positive for the virus will be asymptomatic. Even less is known about what proportion of these people go on to infect others.
The new coronavirus can infect the upper respiratory tract -- the nose and throat, said Ryan, adding that any situation where a person is expelling air under pressure may drive the virus out. He gave the example of someone shouting at their friend in a loud nightclub.
“Some studies have been done on this -- singing, speaking loudly, exertion, maybe in a gym where you’re breathing very heavily,” he said. “Clearly that is playing a role in transmission, there’s no question.”
While true asymptomatic transmission might be uncommon, what’s likely to be more common is presymptomatic transmission. Presymptomatic transmission also occurs with the flu. Studies have shown that people with COVID-19 can infect others anywhere from 1 to 3 days before they get sick, Van Kerkhove said.
Ryan also pointed out that in COVID-19, a person’s viral load, the amount of the virus they have in their body, appears to peak right as they get their first symptoms.
“That means you could be in a restaurant feeling perfectly well and just starting to get a fever, but you’re feeling OK, you didn’t think you needed to stay home. That’s the moment when your viral load could be quite high,” said Ryan.
That’s why masks are important, he said, especially when you can’t stand or sit at a distance from others.
“There is this period of time, you know, where even a professor of infectious diseases themselves wouldn’t know that I’m getting COVID,” Ryan said. “You’re not aware of your status.”
“It’s because the disease can spread at that moment that the disease is so contagious,” he said. “That’s why it has spread around the world in such an uncontained way."
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200609/who-clairifies-comments-on-asymptomatic-covid-spread
And it's all the same people that claim they're deeply religious and love their neighbors as much as themselves.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/24/883017035/what-contact-tracing-may-tell-about-cluster-spread-of-the-coronavirus