Muscat: Major upcoming events in the country are being postponed following the coronavirus outbreak.

The Oman Petroleum & Energy Show (OPES) which was supposed to be held on March 9 to 11 is now postponed to September 14 to 16, organisers have informed.

Ashley Roberts, Portfolio Director and Acting General Manager of Omanexpo said the decision was taken after consultation with Ministry of Oil and Gas. “We have been having regular dialogue with the Ministry of Health, Oman, as well as the Ministry of Oil and Gas, Oman in relation to COVID-19. We as organisers must commend the way that the COVID-19 situation is being very competently controlled in Oman. We must be conscious that many organisations within our community are currently facing difficulties travelling around the world. It is for these travel reasons that OPES will be postponed until later in 2020.”

Unprecedented impact

According to Roberts the situation (coronavirus) is having an unprecedented impact on business around the world including events. “The outbreak of COVID-19 is a situation affecting the globe and it is having an unprecedented impact on businesses around the world, events, are of course part of this due to nature of the large gathering of people that they represent.”

“We believe that the postponement allows for the event to be fully inclusive and it is likely that it will be even better for the communities that they serve,” Roberts added.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries announced that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has postponed the 35th session of FAO Regional Conference for the Near East which was to be held in the sultanate from March 2 to 4.

Last week Oman reported six cases of coronavirus of which one patient has recovered. All six cases had travelled to Iran where 54 people have died due to the virus so far.