By 
Worried over the Covid-19, commonly referred to as the coronavirus,
Facebook has cancelled its annual F8 Conference planned for May in San Jose, California, according to a post from the social media giant.
Over the years, the company has used the F8 Conference to showcase the company’s product line, and it has become a flagship event in the technology community.
In the past, the social network has used the gathering to announce products like its dating service, a brain-to-computer interface and augmented-reality glasses.
This year, with the coronavirus unrelentingly threatening to become a global pandemic, Facebook said it’s considering other ways to give developers and investors information, possibly through “locally hosted events, videos, and live-streamed content.”
The company expressed regrets over the cancelation in a recent blog post.
The F8 is the latest major tech event to be cancelled amid concerns about the spread of the deadly respiratory virus, which has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 82, 400 worldwide. Organisers of the Mobile World Congress, an annual global technology conference in Spain, had cancelled the event for reasons of public safety.
From its epicentre in China, Covid-19 has spread at an alarming rate into virtually all the other continents. To date, Italy has the highest record of cases in Europe, Iran leads the number in the Middle East while the US, this week, recorded the second death from the rampaging virus. Nigeria recorded its first case last week raising concerns over a Covid-19 siege that could overwhelm not just Nigeria but the entire continent.
