After corporations such as Amazon.com Inc and General Motors Co decided not to attend the Las Vegas event in person owing to Omicron’s worries, the operator of the worldwide technology and gadget expo said that CES will now end a day earlier than scheduled.
“The action was taken as an extra safety safeguard to the current health protocols that have been put in place for CES,” stated the event’s organizer, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), on Friday, revealing the event’s new finish date of Jan. 7.
The development of the highly transmissible Omicron form has resulted in a rapid increase in COVID-19 infections around the world, causing many people to reconsider their travel plans and thousands of flights to be canceled.
The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States has doubled in eight days, averaging 329,000 per day.
Many companies have withdrawn from presenting in person at the event, which begins on January 5 with over 2,200 exhibitors and is planned both electronically and in person.
A number of companies, including Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), Proctor & Gamble (PG.N), Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, and Facebook parent Meta Platforms (FB.O), have canceled their in-person plans in the previous few days.
Sony Electronics (6758.T) of the Sony Group (6758.T) has said that attendance and personnel will be limited at the event.
In Las Vegas, all attendees will be expected to be properly vaccinated and masked. According to the CTA, COVID-19 test kits will also be available at the event.
