Apple has reopened its 42 retail stores in China, after closures to counteract the spread of COVID-19

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Apple CEO Tim Cook.

• Apple is reopening all 42 of its stores in China, having closed some in early February as a precaution against the coronavirus.
• A company spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the stores will all reopen Friday.
• In late February, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was "very optimistic" China had the coronavirus under control, citing reductions in the numbers of new cases being recorded in the country.
• The company warned in February it would not meet its March revenue guidance, in part thanks to China store closures.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple is reopening all 42 of its retail stores in China.

A company spokesman confirmed to Reuters that the stores will reopen Friday. Some had been closed in early February as a precaution against the coronavirus.

Apple had warned in mid-February that it would not meet its March revenue guidance thanks to the store closures, and production slowdown thanks to the coronavirus outbreak in China.

Later that month, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was "very optimistic" China had the coronavirus under control, citing reductions in the numbers of new cases being recorded in the country.

Cook added that many suppliers to Apple have reopened factories in the country. Crucially for Apple, this includes its biggest iPhone manufacturer, Foxconn, whose founder said Thursday that production at its factories had returned to normal.

The reduction in new cases cited by Cook appears to be continuing, too. Wuhan - the Chinese city where the virus originated - reported fewer than 10 new cases for the second day in a row on Friday, while no locally-transmitted contractions of the virus were reported in the rest of China.

The number of new cases outside China is continuing to rise. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization's director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that outside China, the number of cases of the virus increased 13-fold in a fortnight.

Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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