California, March 14: Apple on Saturday announced that it will close all of its stores outside of Greater China until March 27. Apple Informed that they have taken the decision to reduce the risk of the coronavirus spreading which is spreading across the globe. However, it maintained that its online store will remain open as well as its 'Apple Store' app too.

Informing about the latest development, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that they are taking these steps after taking lessions from the outbreak in China. He said, as quoted by CNBC, "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,” Cook wrote in a blog post late on Friday. “As rates of new infections continue to grow in other places, we’re taking additional steps to protect our team members and customers." Coronavirus Outbreak: Google Building Website to Self-Check Symptoms of COVID-19, Says Donald Trump.

Earlier too, Apple took similar step on February 9 when it temporarily shut down all its stores in mainland China because of COVID-19. Though on March 13, all of its mainland China stores had re-opened, but for few hours only. Due to the coronavirus epidemic, the global economy has suffered a a great loss.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 14, 2020 02:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).