Coronavirus conference gets canceled because of coronavirus outbreak

Coronavirus conference scheduled to be held in New York has been canceled — due to ongoing coronavirus oubreak according to news first reported by Bloomberg. The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a nonprofit think tank on US foreign policy and international affairs, decided to cancel a roundtable called “Doing Business Under Coronavirus” scheduled for Friday in New York due to the spread of the infection itself, Bloomberg News reported.

CFR has also canceled other in-person conferences that were scheduled from March 11 to April 3, including roundtables in New York and Washington and national events around the U.S. “There are currently no upcoming events. Please check back soon for new events,” reads a statement on the CFR’s website.

The canceled confab joins a list of other events affected by COVID-19 in the state, which holds the largest cluster of coronavirus cases in the US. Other affected conference includes the New York International Auto Show, which has been postponed from next month to late August.

So far, more than 50 major corporate events with an estimated attendance of close to 1 million people have been canceled due to the outbreak, according to Bloomberg News. New York State now has 176 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections.

Events in metro New York are coming under close scrutiny due to an increase in cases in the city and, in particular, an outbreak in the suburb of New Rochelle. The National Guard will be sent to the town to help close public gathering spaces in an effort to slow the spread of the outbreak, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference.