TASS, April 14. Organizers of the prestigious Tour de France cycling race have confirmed that the event will be postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic, NBC TV reports.

The race was initially supposed to take place between June 27 and July 19. L’Equipe daily earlier stressed that the postponement comes after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision to extend lockdown until May 11 as well as to uphold the ban on mass events until mid-July.

"Given that it’s now impossible that the Tour starts at its planned date, we are consulting with the ICU (International Cycling Union) to try and find new dates," the organizers said.

In a previous comment, general director of Tour de France Christian Prudhomme noted that he is not considering calling the race off altogether or holding it without spectators. On March 13, another renowned cycling race, Giro d’Italia, was put on hold.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 1,900,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 119,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 453,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.