As companies around the world shut down its brick and mortar stores one by one, Apple have announced that it has reopened all 42 of its branded retail stores in China as of today. With China being the source of the outbreak and all, the company had actually shuttered all stores as early as February as the Chinese government restricted travel in order to slow down the outbreak of the coronavirus.

With the situation in China slowly improving however, Apple have been gradually reopening it’s stores over the course of the last few weeks.

“It feels to me that China is getting the coronavirus under control, I mean you look at the numbers, they’re coming down day by day by day. And so I’m very optimistic there.”

CEO Tim Cook in an interview with Fox Business

The closures in China, which happens to be one of Apple’s biggest markets in the world, was the main reason that the company came out and announced that it did not expect to meet its quarterly revenue guidance last month. While the improving situation in China may spell good news for Apple given that their factories are there, the fact that the virus is spreading rapidly to other parts of the world is cause for concern.

The company was forced to close all 17 of its stores in Italy this week after the Italian government put the country on lockdown. With other countries contemplating the same measures, it could be one step forward and two steps back for Apple.