"50,000 Expected to Attend" Despite Ongoing COVID-19... MWC Barcelona to Proceed at End of June

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] The world's largest mobile exhibition, the Mobile World Congress (MWC), is expected to be held as scheduled in June in Barcelona, Spain.

On the 17th (local time), IT specialized media The Verge reported that the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), the organizer of MWC, reaffirmed the holding of MWC in Barcelona this June.

GSMA CEO John Hoffman said in an interview with Mobile World Live, "The number of on-site attendees, which used to exceed 100,000 annually, will decrease this year due to the impact of COVID-19," and added, "We expect about 50,000 people to attend the event in Barcelona."

Previously, GSMA changed the schedule by moving the MWC, which was held every February, to June 29 to July 1 this year, and the 'MWC Shanghai,' which was held every June in Shanghai (上海), China, to February 23 to 25.

CEO Hoffman stated, "It would be ideal if all attendees were vaccinated, but this year we cannot rely solely on vaccination," and expressed intentions to manage safety by limiting the density of attendees and requiring mask-wearing. He also added that all attendees will be asked to provide a negative COVID-19 test result within 72 hours after arrival.

Regarding this, The Verge expressed concerns by citing the biotech conference held in Boston, USA, which caused a mass infection last year, stating that large-scale international offline events threaten not only the safety of attendees but also the residents of the event area.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.