Amid the rising concerns around COVID-19 outbreak, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was assessing several possible sites for overflowing patients from hospitals nearing their capacity. Apart from the TCF Center where the Detroit Auto show was supposed to be held, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had also assessed dozens of locations throughout the state to turn them into a temporary field hospital.
North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) is held each year in the TCF Center which will now be postponed as Detroit is turning into an unofficial epicenter of the state’s outbreak after confirming 1,377 of Michigan’s total cases and 30 deaths.
Rob Alberts, Executive Director of NAIAS in a statement said, “Although we are disappointed, there is nothing more important to us than the health, safety, and well-being of the citizens of Detroit and Michigan, and we will do what we can to support our community’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak.”
With being latest addition in the long list of events and conventions that have been canceled amid the COVID-19 outbreak, NAIAS will now be postponed to 2021 to be held in June. As a part of this event, organizers will keep discussing the plan to carry out fundraising activity later this year that will benefit the children’s charities that were designated as beneficiaries for June 2020 auto show.
Organizers had been organizing the event in January and this year, they decided to shift the event to summer due to growing requests from the participants across the globe. All attendees who have purchased tickets for the 2020 NAIAS show including tickets for the Public Show, Industry Preview and Charity Preview will be fully refunded to respective people from the organizer. Charity preview ticket holders will have an option either to get a refund of their tickets or to donate the proceeds of their refund to one of the nine designated Charity Preview beneficiaries.
This year’s NAIAS was expected to one of the biggest unveilings of autonomous technology integrations with automobiles which have been a major aspect for many of the world’s leading car manufacturing companies. NAIAS cancellation isn’t the only show which has either got canceled or postponed due to the current pandemic situation; several other international car shows in Switzerland and China.
