MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The 2020 European Judo Championship, which was scheduled to be held in the Czech capital of Prague on May 1-3, has been postponed until late June over the threat of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Sergey Soloveichik, the president of the European Judo Union (EDU), told TASS on Friday.
"The European [Judo] Championship has been postponed until late June," Soloveichik said. "This decision was made yesterday following an initiative from the Czech Judo Federation, which wants to maintain its right to host this tournament."
"We have voiced our support for this initiative, because under the current situation we must listen to each other and support each other," the EDU president added.
The European Judo Union confirmed later on Friday the information that the championship was postponed as a preventive measure against the novel coronavirus.
"Due to the current health situation in Europe it was mutually decided by EJU Executive Committee and Czech Judo Federation to postpone the European Judo Championships 2020 to June 19-21," the EJU said in a statement.
"The new dates have been approved by IJF with points for Olympic qualification to be granted. The EJU flagship event will take place in O2 Arena in Prague," the statement added.
According to the most recent data, the Czech Republic has reported 94 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the country, with 48 of them registered in Prague.
COVID-19 Global Spread
On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, an economic and industrial megalopolis with a population of 11 million.
The virus was identified on January 7 as 2019-nCoV. The World Health Organization declared in January that the new coronavirus outbreak was a public health emergency of international concern, characterizing it as an epidemic with multiple locations.
On February 11, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the organization gave the novel coronavirus an official name of COVID-19. On March 11, the World Health Organization officially stated that the continuously spreading novel coronavirus was a global pandemic.
As of today, 127 countries and territories reported confirmed coronavirus cases. According to the latest reports, over 135,800 cases of patients infected with the novel coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide. The virus’ death toll has reached 4,990, yet more than 70,420 patients have recovered from the disease.