Macy’s shortens store hours as COVID-19 cases surge

(Reuters) -Macy’s Inc will reduce its U.S. store hours for the rest of January as it prepares for potential COVID-19 cases among workers with the Omicron variant driving up infections across the United States.

Stores will now be open between 11 am and 8 pm from Monday to Thursday instead of 10 am to 9 pm, but the timings remain unchanged from Friday to Sunday, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Our store colleagues will continue to work their normal allocated hours. We will continue to monitor the situation and follow the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and jurisdictional guidelines,” said Andrea Schwartz, senior director of external communications at Macy’s.

The rapid spike in Omicron cases has disrupted businesses across the United States, with Walmart on Monday saying it had temporarily shut almost 60 stores in COVID-19 hotspots in December to sanitize them against the virus.

Apple also closed all of its 12 New York City stores to indoor shopping in December.

The United States reported almost a million new coronavirus infections on Monday, with the fast-spreading Omicron variant estimated to account for 95.4% of cases as of Jan. 1.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)