Companies drop out of CES 2022 over omicron variant concerns

The Consumer Electronics show 2022 also known as the CES is all set to open the doors to thousands of attendees at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. It will mark one of the biggest technology trade shows of the year. But the organizers of the event are left worried as an increasing number of companies and attendees are dropping out of the event. Exhibitors, media and the attendees continue to remain worried about the rise in the number of cases of the recent omicron variant.

Some of the big companies like Amazon, Facebook parent company Meta, T-Mobile and Twitter announced about its back out from the event. Even some of the other giants like the CNET, Verge and TechCrunch have also backed out from attending the event due concerns regarding the omicron variant. However, the tech conference continues to remain in place and is scheduled to take place on January 5 through January 8, 2022. The organizers of the CES expressed that they were comfortable holding the event in person due to the health measures that they are taking, social distancing measures and the low attendance.

It was in last January, 2021 when the event had gone completely online due to the winter surge of the coronavirus pandemic. On a regular basis, it is a sprawling event that features everything from self-driving cars and robots. The event is hosted by the Consumer Technology Association and has attracted more than 170,000 attendees a year before the pandemic.

This year, the attendees of the event should be fully vaccinated and wearing of masks will be mandatory. The event will be completely indoors and reports say that more than 2100 exhibitors were lined up for the 2022 event. Waymo, Samsung, AT&T and Meta were some of the biggest names. The presence of the omicron variant changed the plans pretty fast as it accounts for nearly 73 percent of the new cases.

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