Two badminton tournaments have been either postponed or cancelled amid growing concern of COVID-19 outbreak in Europe.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) announced the cancellation of the 2020 German Open, slated to be held in Mulheim an der Ruhr from March 3 to 8.
The decision, which was confirmed by the German Badminton Association (GBA), was made by the City of Mulheim council after being consulted by their public health department over the COVID-19 outbreak.
"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 to 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 2020 Polish Open," it said.
Both tournaments were qualifying events for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
According to the European Union (EU) , a total of 381 cases and 12 deaths had been reported in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
