Coronavirus scare forces Bangladesh to postpone international archery competition

Travel restrictions over a deadly coronavirus pandemic have forced Bangladesh to postpone an international archery competition which was to take place in the last week of February.

Over 200 competitors from 30 countries were expected to take part in the ISSF International Solidarity Championships at the Archery Training Centre of Shaheed Ahsanullah Master Stadium in Gazipur’s Tongi from Feb 23.

“But many countries have refused to send their archers due to coronavirus scare. The number of participants has dropped to 70-80. So, we are postponing the tournament for now,” Kazi Rajib Uddin Ahmed Chapol, the general secretary of the Bangladesh Archery Federation, told bdnews24.com on Tuesday.

The federation will sit to set a new schedule, he added. Bangladesh has been organising the annual world ranking event since 2017.

World Archery, the game’s governing body, said in a report that a number of teams withdrew due to travel restrictions and ongoing concerns around the COVID-19 or coronavirus outbreak.

“This meant the event was no longer feasible,” it added.

The rapidly spreading coronavirus claimed another 98 lives in mainland China on Monday, bringing the total death toll there to 1,868.

There were 1,886 new confirmed infections for a total of 72,436.

Outside of China, there are 827 cases in 26 countries and regions and five deaths.