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Postponements, cancelations new normal as virus fears grow
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A cyclist drives past a banner promoting the International Travel Fair (Internationale Tourismus Boerse, ITB) at the fair grounds in Berlin on Feb 28, 2020. The event set for March 4-8 has been cancelled over coronavirus. (AFP/Tobias Schwarz)
F
rom heads of state meetings to exhibitions and major sporting events, cancellations and postponements are the order of the day as the death toll from COVID-19 reaches more than 3,200 worldwide.
The postponement of a special summit in Las Vegas between leaders of Southeast Asian countries and the United States set for March 14 was announced last week by US officials, as a result of worries about the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported.
However, the officials provided no definite date for rescheduling the event set to be attended by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
As of Friday, the US had recorded more than 180 confirmed cases nationwide with 12 deaths, according to an AFP tally.
A spokesperson to the US Mission to ASEAN said the US remained on the lookout for future opportunities for US President Donald Trump to meet with the leaders of ASEAN countries, but would refer to the White House for scheduling issues.
“ASEAN is at the heart of our free and open Indo-Pacific strategy, and we take every opportunity to reaffirm our enduring partnership and commitment to shared principles and to deepen our economic and security cooperation,” the spokesperson told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The Las Vegas summit was supposed to make up for Trump’s absence from the US-ASEAN annual summit last November, when he instead sent his national security adviser Robert O'Brien.
