Amazon.com Inc has pulled out of the Mobile World Congress citing China’s coronavirus outbreak.
“Due to the outbreak and continued concerns about the new coronavirus, Amazon will withdraw from exhibiting and participating in Mobile World Congress 2020,” said Amazon in a statement.
Earlier, Amazon had planned for large presence in the MWC for its cloud computing arm AWS, which was scheduled to host a full-day conference track on the first day of the event.
Other companies that have pulled out of the MWC 2020 includes Nvidia, LG Electronics, and Ericsson.
According to a statement from the GSMA telecom industry association, the February 24 to 27 event will go ahead as planned with tightened health precautions to guard against the outbreak.
Visitors from China’s Hubei province will not be allowed to attend the event; other visitors from China will have to prove that they have been outside China two weeks prior to the event.
Typically, 5,000 to 6,000 Chinese visitors attend the world’s premier telecoms industry gathering.
China’s Huawei and ZTE have said they will attend and have ordered their China-based staff to self-isolate themselves ahead of the event to ensure they are free of the illness; both companies have also drafted in European staff to cover for those stranded.
Th death toll from China’s coronavirus has surpassed those of the SARS epidemic. The pathogen has spread to at least 27 countries and territories and has infected more than 330 people outside China.
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