GSMA to decide on MWC amid virus fear

At a time when major tech and smartphone players have pulled out of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) due to the outbreak of coronavirus (2019-nCoV), its organiser and telecoms lobby GSMA is going to hold a meeting on Friday to decide on the fate of the world's biggest tech event.

According to a new report coming out of Spain, GSMA is holding a meeting on Friday, February 14, to decide the fate of MWC 2020, GSMArena reported on Tuesday.

Cisco and Facebook have become the latest big tech firms to drop out of the world's largest mobile industry exhibition.

Both the companies have joined the growing list of companies -- including LG electronics, Ericsson, Nvidia, Sony, Amazon, Intel, Vivo, and NTT Docomo to not attend the mobile trade show.

Meanwhile, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has confirmed it will participate at MWC 2020 and will also stick to its original schedule.

Chinese health authorities on Wednesday said it received reports of 2,015 new confirmed cases of novel coronavirus infection and 97 deaths from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. 

With this, the overall confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland has reached 44,653 by the end of Tuesday, and 1,113 people died of the disease.