The Wuhan coronavirus, now named as the CoViD-2019, led to the cancelation of some of this year's biggest events in business, sports, and other segments amid fears that people attending the gatherings may contract the fast-spreading disease.
Mobile World Congress Taps Out
In a statement released on Wednesday, organizers of the Mobile World Congress said this year's conference has been canceled amid fears around the coronavirus.
According to Business Insider, GSMA, the event's organizer, noted that the threats of the novel coronavirus "make it impossible" for the conference to push through. The announcement came after GSMA previously stood its ground that MWC will not be canceled.
It is unclear just how many exhibitors canceled before GSMA made the announcement but some big tech companies such as Facebook and Amazon already said they will back out of the conference.
Over the weekend, GSMA said there were still around 2,800 exhibitors who haven't pulled out of the event.
Major Golf Tournament Canceled
Things haven't been well with a major golfing tournament in Singapore as well. On Monday, a statement from the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) confirmed that the HSBC Women's World Championship will be moved to a different date.
The move came following continued health concerns as well as warnings from health authorities that big events may not be safe for people at this time, the group said, as reported by Channel News Asia.
Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) previously encouraged organizers to cancel large-scale events that will draw crowds or those conferences that will see people packed inside a room.
Last year, there were 32,000 attendees at the said annual face-off among lady golfers. Before the coronavirus outbreak, organizers were expected around the same number of attendees or even more.
Shanghai Fashion Week Postponed
World-famous Shanghai Fashion Week has been postponed to a later date but the official date for the said meet has yet to be announced.
According to Refinery29, Shanghai Fashion Week vice secretary-general Lv Xiaolei, wrote on WeChat that despite the event's postponement, the group will continue to communicate with participating parties to find an appropriate solution to the problem.
Shanghai Fashion Week is usually held after Paris Fashion Week, a global fashion gathering that takes place every March. China Fashion Week has yet to announce an update on whether the event will push through or not.
Berlin Film Fest On the Verge
The upcoming Berlin Film Festival is probably on the verge of getting canceled, some industry experts suggested, as around 60 delegates have canceled their appearance for the said event.
European Film Market (EFM) chief Matthijs Wouter Knol confirmed to Deadline that 59 of the cancelations came from China. Among those who will not show up at the film fest are international executives.
Some journalists have also revealed they cannot attend the film fest due to travel restrictions while another said covering the event will be done remotely.
The Berlin Film Festival drew around 10,000 participants in 2019. While the current number of cancelations seem to be small and may not disrupt the gathering, it is unclear how the absence of Chinese delegates will affect the festival.
China Reels from Multiple Canceled Events
Over in China, the coronavirus' origin country, multiple events have been canceled or postponed since January as the world's second-largest economy continues to raise efforts in containing the infection.
The latest postponement was the Industrial Internet Summit which was supposed to have run from February 12-14 in Beijing, Caixin Global reported.
Among the events that were postponed due to coronavirus fears include the 2020 Bloomberg NEF Annual Strategy Seminar in Beijing on February 27, the 30th East China Fair in Shanghai from March 1-4, and the SEMICON/FPD China 2020 conference in Shanghai supposedly scheduled for March 18-20.
Canceled events include the Hong Kong Art Central, scheduled for March 18-22 and the Art Basel 2020 that was initially planned for late March.
