Intertextile and Yarn Expo Shanghai Delayed Over New Virus Variant Concerns
SHANGHAI — The fall editions of Yarn Expo, Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics and Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles scheduled to place take at the end of August, have been postponed to Oct. 9 to 11 in an effort to prevent against a potential new outbreak of COVID-19 in Shanghai.
“To comply with the government guidelines for pandemic containment and following discussions with our stakeholders, we have made the decision to postpone the fairs from their original August timing,” said Wendy Wen, senior general manager of Messe Frankfurt. “To allow our exhibitors and buyers as much time as possible to plan ahead, we have already confirmed new dates with the fairground for the three concurrent fairs: October 9 to 11.”
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“I would like to thank the participants of all three fairs for their understanding and ongoing support as we continue to operate in uncertain times. We remain dedicated to providing a quality international trading platform for three sectors for the autumn/winter sourcing season, and our overseas suppliers will still be able to participate through our hybrid exhibition scheme if they are unable to be in Shanghai in-person.”
A number of events across the city were similarly postponed or have added further health measures in order to proceed. Shopping centers and office buildings across the city have also stepped up temperature and health code checks.
Shanghai reported a local case this week and the nearby city of Nanjing is experiencing a cluster of Delta variant cases. The Delta variant has been found in at least 14 provinces in China. On Tuesday, Wuhan, the city in which the virus first emerged, announced it would retest its entire 11 million population after seven cases were found on Monday.
China, which has relied on quarantine and lockdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus, is now in a push to vaccinate its population. Thus far, 223 million of its 1.4 billion population are fully vaccinated. However, Chinese vaccines such as Sinovac and Sinopharm, which rely on older technology have proved less efficacious against COVID-19 than mRNA vaccines, and are thought to be even less so against the more contagious virus variants.
Domestic group Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, which partners with Pfizer in other countries, are in the final stages of approval to produce an mRNA vaccine for China. Fosun chairman Wu Yifang said last month in a shareholder’s meeting that domestic trial production will start by the end of August, according to Chinese media outlet Caixin.
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