Hanoi (VNA) - The secondMotoGP race of the season, which was scheduled to take place in Thailand later thismonth, will be postponed due to the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic, ThaiDeputy Prime Minister cum Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on March 2.
The decision to postpone the ThailandGrand Prix in the northeastern province of Buriram from March 20-23 comes a dayafter this weekend's season-opening race in Qatar was cancelled due to travelrestrictions on passengers from Italy and elsewhere.
Six riders in the 22-strong gridof the championship are Italians, while there are a number of engineers andmechanics that hail from the country which has seen a surge of cases.
The race is the latest in a longline of international sporting events affected by the acute respiratory diseasecaused by SARS-CoV-2 that originated in China late last year and has killedsome 3,000 people and infected over 88,000 across the world.
Last week, Thai MotoGP organisersremained upbeat about the event, saying it would go ahead with strict healthmeasures like temperature checks, facemasks and hand sanitisers.
However, Thailand's healthministry reported on March 1 that a 35-year-old Thai man
had passed away due tocomplications caused by the coronavirus, which he contracted
after suffering from denguefever. This was the first fatality caused by the disease in Thailand.
The Southeast Asian country has todate reported 43 SARS-CoV-2 infection cases since January, of them 31 patientshave recovered and returned home and 11 are still being treated in hospitals./.
VNA