New Lockdown Measures Close All Remaining Apple Stores in the UK

Apple has temporarily closed all of its stores in the United Kingdom, as England and most of Scotland enter new lockdowns to curb a steep rise in coronavirus cases thought to be caused by a new strain.

edinburgh store closed
Announced on Monday by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the new lockdowns close all schools and non-essential shops, and mean people must stay indoors other than for limited exceptions, such as essential medical needs, food shopping, exercise, and work that cannot be done at home.

In England, the strict rules are to be enforced until at least mid-February, while in Scotland they apply on the mainland until the end of January, and will be kept under review. Northern Ireland went into lockdown on December 26, while Wales has been in a nationwide lockdown since December 20, so Apple stores there were already closed before the holidays, as noted by 9to5Mac's Michael Steeber.


With local tiered restrictions in force since early November, many of Apple's retail locations had already been operating on a click-and-collect basis only with Express Pickup. However, the new lockdown rules are the harshest the U.K. has seen since the spring, and all non-essential stores must once again close. The new rules come after the U.K. reported a record 58,784 cases on Monday, as well as a further 407 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

Update: Apple has informed MacRumors of an update to its holiday returns policy which means customers seeking to return products purchased in-store will still be able to do so whenever the lockdowns end and stores reopen.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

wwdc sans text feature

Apple Rumored to Announce New Product on February 19

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld. Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...
Apple Logo Zoomed

Tim Cook Teases Plans for Apple's Upcoming 50th Anniversary

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:54 pm PST by
Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026. "I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart ...
Finder Siri Feature

Why Apple's iOS 26.4 Siri Upgrade Will Be Bigger Than Originally Promised

Friday February 6, 2026 3:06 pm PST by
In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do. The iOS 26.4 version of Siri won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up. Upgraded Architecture The next-generation...
maxresdefault

Apple Shows Off a Key Reason to Upgrade to the iPhone 17

Saturday February 7, 2026 9:26 am PST by
Apple today shared an ad that shows how the upgraded Center Stage front camera on the latest iPhones improves the process of taking a group selfie. "Watch how the new front facing camera on iPhone 17 Pro takes group selfies that automatically expand and rotate as more people come into frame," says Apple. While the ad is focused on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, the regular iPhone...
iOS 26

iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Tuesday February 3, 2026 7:47 am PST by
While the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate is now available ahead of a public release, the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April. Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far. iOS 26.3 iPhone to Android Transfer Tool iOS 26.3 makes it easier...

Top Rated Comments

seek3r Avatar
67 months ago

As an aside, I understand it's difficult to determine the cause of death sometimes - especially for those who die outside of a hospital or care home - but the UK is counting deaths within 28 days of a positive test (as are many other countries). That includes everyone who tests positive then gets hit by a bus within 28 days. 28 days is an arbitrary number. Could've been 14, 21, 50... The numbers of deaths are arbitrary. Still frighteningly high, but that's the fault of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson's useless government and ministers.
It may come as a shock to you but doctors arent completely stupid. If someone gets hit by a bus and they had COV19 but die directly from the trauma, like blood loss on scene, the cause of death is the bus, not COV19 (the exception to that could be something like they were hospitalized and stable and then died of respiratory failure because of COV19, where the possible primary cause is COV19 exacerbated by physical trauma, but typically even that will be reported as a trauma death as it's likely the trauma would be viewed as the primary cause).

The right wing talking point you're trying to reiterate, even worse than the original if that's possible, has to do with comorbidities where, yes, someone with, say, COPD who gets COV19 and dies from respiratory failure is a COV19 death. That's because very few people die of any one thing on its own, outside of, say, major trauma (like getting hit by a bus) and the primary cause is the most important part in COV19 reporting. But no one is reporting bus accidents as COV19 deaths, in the UK, in the US, or anywhere else (and I'm sure right wingers will jump on this post with some example of one misreported death, but statistically that's not happening)
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
67 months ago
Look in the bright side - the UK currently has more people vaccinated than all of EU combined. Good job folks!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ducknalddon Avatar
67 months ago

As an aside, I understand it's difficult to determine the cause of death sometimes - especially for those who die outside of a hospital or care home - but the UK is counting deaths within 28 days of a positive test (as are many other countries). That includes everyone who tests positive then gets hit by a bus within 28 days. 28 days is an arbitrary number. Could've been 14, 21, 50...
It also excludes anybody who was tested positive then took more than 28 days to die. It is arbitrary but it assuming it is meaningless because it isn't perfect is a mistake. It gives us an indication of the direction of travel.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mazz0 Avatar
67 months ago

Despicable government overreach.

Have a look yourself. Mountains of evidence that the lockdowns are not justified. @IvorCummins ('https://twitter.com/fatemperor?s=21')
Rather inefficient for you to suggest that everybody who reads your post goes and duplicates effort finding evidence you already have. Why don't you just share it?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
farewelwilliams Avatar
67 months ago
don't worry guys, it's just like the flu
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kahkityoong Avatar
67 months ago

It’s almost like a series of half-baked ‘tiered’ restrictions were ineffective at both stemming the tide of the virus and protecting businesses. What a shock. This full lockdown should have come before Christmas. Instead, it was apparently better to pander to the “spreading-Covid-is-my-right” brigade, and here we are. Apple will be fine, though. The same may not be true for retail employees and small business owners. Hopefully we can stem the tide until the larger rollout of the vaccines. It’s like the UK and US are in competition for how epically they can fail at their response to a global pandemic. If you have lost friends or family to the virus or have been tangentially impacted by it (e.g. unemployment), you know how frustrating this all is - and depressing, quite frankly. Take care of yourselves and others. ❤️?
UK’s response has been terrible. Too slow and too soft. But the worst thing is not to learn from the previous mistakes. Still it’s better than USA’s outright negligence.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)