Coronavirus themed conference called off due to Coronavirus scare

NEW YORK: An event called “Doing Business Under Coronavirus” organized by US think tank Council on Foreign Relations was called off amid coronavirus scare.

The organization has cancelled other events between March 11 and April 3 in the US.

Novel coronavirus that originated from China’s Wuhan city has spread across the globe, causing widespread panic for the past few months.

As per media reports, the COVID-19 cases have now spread in more than 100 countries, including India.

More than 106,000 people have been infected by the coronavirus across the world and 3,600 have died from it, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements.

Meanwhile, the International Indian Film Academy Awards 2020 (IIFA) scheduled to be held in March end in Indore, Madhya Pradesh has been postponed amid coronavirus scare.

“With due regard to the growing concerns around the spread of the COVID-19 virus and keeping the health and safety of IIFA’s fans and the general community at large, after consulting the Madhya Pradesh government, the IIFA management, and stakeholders from the film industry it has been decided to postpone to a later date the much-awaited IIFA Weekend and Awards 2020 celebrations which were originally scheduled at the end of March 2020,” according to a statement by IIFA.

Questions are also being raised on the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics organizing committee president Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday dismissed speculation that the Games might be canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak. “I am totally not considering this,” Mori told reporters at a briefing when asked about a possible cancellation.

Asked when the organizers could decide on changes to the Olympics, he said: “I’m not God so I don’t know.” The International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board expressed its full commitment to the success of the Olympic Games in Tokyo to be held between July 24 to August 9 this year.

The IOC board heard a report on all the measures taken so far to address the coronavirus situation, which was followed by a comprehensive discussion, a statement on IOC’s official website read.

IOC spokesman Mark Adams while addressing a press conference in Lausanne, Switzerland said that it sees “no reason” to think anything other than the Games will be going ahead as planned.

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