Beijing (AFP)
Qualifying matches for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic women's football tournament, originally scheduled for February in Wuhan, the center of the epidemic of the new coronavirus which has killed nine and infected hundreds of people in China, have been relocated to the the country, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced on Wednesday.
Teams from China, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia, which were scheduled to play in Wuhan from February 3 to 9, will play on the same dates in Nanjing, on the proposal of the Chinese Football Federation, the AFC said in a statement.
The Taiwan Football Federation had threatened to withdraw from the qualifiers if the matches were held in Wuhan, saying its priority was the safety of the players.
In addition to the nine deaths recorded, at least 440 people were infected, according to Chinese authorities, by the virus, a new type of coronavirus spotted in December in a wholesale seafood and fish market in Wuhan.
The virus, which is transmitted through the respiratory tract, has spread and been diagnosed outside of China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and the United States.
Coronaviruses can cause mild illnesses in humans (like a cold) but also other more serious ones like SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
The epidemic should also lead, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo, to the relocation of an Olympic boxing qualification tournament, also scheduled for February in Wuhan.
© 2020 AFP