Every day there’s a new announcement, and overnight TCL has confirmed that it will be scaling back its attendance at MWC 2020 owing to concerns around the Coronavirus internationally.

TCL joins ZTE in reducing its attendance at the show, and more broadly, joins LG, Ericsson, Nvidia and Amazon which have pulled their entire presence at the show.

MWC is big news, not just because of the consumer devices announced – which we’re most interested in – but also in the deals done at the show. Carriers make arrangements to range new handsets, vendors sell the wares and infrastructure companies preview what they’re working on so carriers and developers can place orders. Not being at the show has a lot of flow on effects.

In a statement, TCL confirmed that it’s press conference on February 22nd has been cancelled, but the firm will still attend MWC 2020 as planned. The company will still announce several new devices and they will be present at their dedicated show floor booth shared with its brand Alcatel:

Given the recent global health concerns due to the spread of the 2019-nCoV virus, and out of an abundance of caution and care for our staff, customers, press and other guests, TCL Communication is cancelling its global press event for MWC 2020, which was planned for 22 February 2020.

This decision does not impact any other MWC 2020 activities planned by the company and TCL will still announce its latest mobile devices and showcase them at its booth in the Fira Gran Via – Hall 3, Stand 3D11 – from 24-27 February as scheduled.

The next two weeks will no doubt be pivotal for MWC 2020, as we expect even more firms and brands to pull out of the event over Coronavirus concerns.