MWC 2020 is set to begin on February 24th and end on February 27th. Unfortunately, the 2019-nCoV coronavirus outbreak, which has caused over 40,000 cases worldwide and just over 1,000 confirmed deaths, has caused a considerable number of major OEMs to pull out of the event. This is due either partially or entirely for fears that the event itself could become an infection hub and to protect their employees and other attendees. Major OEMs who have pulled out so far include LG, Sony, TCL, and ZTE. Some of them cite the coronavirus outbreak directly as the reason, while others simply cite changes in executive and commercial plans. Whatever the reasons may be, the issue is that companies are pulling out in big numbers, and now MediaTek and Vivo have as well.

MediaTek and Vivo both decided to announce their decision to pull out via email, with both companies citing concern regarding the outbreak. MediaTek is based in Taiwan while Vivo is based in mainland China, with China being the epicenter of the disease and Taiwan already having a number of confirmed cases. Concerns over the virus spreading are getting so bad that Spanish publication La Vanguardia is reporting (via Android Authority) that the GSMA (the organization putting together MWC) is evaluating canceling the event entirely in a meeting set to be held on Friday, February 14th.

Rather than calling it off it for the coronavirus outbreak entirely, though, it would be a secondary effect of it: companies keep calling off their MWC presence, leaving the GSMA with less and less of a reason to go forward with it. This isn't a decision to take lightly—after all, there is still a considerable number of attendees who haven't called off their presence at MWC entirely. The report of GSMA considering canceling the show may not be true, though. According to an Honor PR spokesperson on Twitter, GSMA says the report of a meeting on Friday is false. This doesn't mean the show definitely won't be canceled, but it's possible the GSMA isn't actively considering it.