KUALA LUMPUR: Two badminton tournaments have either been postponed or cancelled amid growing concern of Covid -19 outbreak in the European continent.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF), in a statement issued today, stated that the upcoming 2020 German Open, slated to be held in Mulheim an der Ruhr from March 3-8, had been cancelled.
The decision was made by the City of Mulheim council after taking an advice from their public health department over the Covid -19 outbreak.
BWF said that the German Badminton Association (GBA) confirmed the decision by the City of Mulheim shortly after.
“No concrete plans or decisions have been made in regards to the immediate future of the tournament other than that it won’t occur next week.
The statement said BWF and GBA accepted the decision, citing the welfare of players, their entourage, fans and officials at the tournament as their main priority.
It also said the Polish Open, slated to be held in Krakow from March 26-29, would be postponed to a later date.
“Due to the growing sanitary and epidemiological threat posed by Covid-19 (Coronavirus), the Board of the Polish Badminton Association, after consultation with the District Sanitary and Epidemiological Station in Krakow, the Crisis Management Department in Krakow, the Department of Social Affairs, and the Ministry of Sport and Health, have decided to postpone the Polish Open 2020,” it said.
The tournament is a qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games, to be held from July 24 until Aug 9.
According to the European Union (EU), via their website https://www.ecdc.europa.eu, a total of 381 cases and 12 deaths have been reported in the EU/ European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom and Switzerland. – Bernama
