Amazon.com Inc is the latest company to drop out of the world’s largest mobile industry exhibition, the Mobile World Congress 2020 (MWC) citing concerns related to the coronavirus. The tech giant said in a statement that it will withdraw from participating in the event “due to the outbreak and continued concerns about the coronavirus”, Reuters reported.
The event is scheduled to be held in Barcelona from February 24-27 this year. LG Electronics, Ericsson and Nvidia are the other companies that have already announced their exit from the global technology show. Graphics giant Nvidia was also a sponsor for the event.
Amazon was set to host a full-day conference on the first day of MWC 2020 and present its innovations in cloud computing through its cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services.
MWC 2020 organiser GSMA has announced its decision to carry forward with the event while taking all necessary measures to address the health and safety concerns of the attendees. “The GSMA is moving ahead as planned and will host MWC Barcelona 24-27 February 2020,” the company said in an official statement. “ While the GSMA confirms some large exhibitors have decided not to come to the show this year with others still contemplating next steps, we remain more than 2,800 exhibitors strong,” GSMA said in a statement.
The organisers have announced their decision to not allow attendees from the Hubei province into the event. Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province is the epicentre of the outbreak.
Furthermore, attendees with travel history to China will have to provide proof that they have been outside of China for 14 days prior to the event. They will have to present necessary documents including passport stamp and a health certificate.
Attendees will be screened accordingly and will need to self-certify that they have not been in contact with an infected person, the organizers said in a statement.
The 2019 novel coronavirus (n-CoV) outbreak has claimed more than 800 lives, the casualties surpassing those of the 2003 SARS outbreak, according to media reports.