The annual World Economic Forum scheduled for January in the Swiss resort of Davos is being rescheduled due to concerns over the global surge of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
What Happened: The event, which was slated for Jan. 17-21, will instead take place in what the forum organizers announced as “early summer.” According to a CNBC report, the January dates will be used for an online series of “State of the World” sessions designed “to focus on shaping solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.”
This marks the second consecutive year that the forum has been delayed. The January 2021 event was rescheduled for an August happening in Singapore, which wound up being canceled due to coronavirus concerns.
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Why It Matters: The World Economic Forum attracts heads of state, major corporate leaders, activists and investors, and the January event was being promoted as a platform “to address economic, environmental, political and social fault lines exacerbated by the pandemic.”
President Donald Trump attended two forums while he was in office, but Bloomberg reported President Joe Biden was not planning to attend next month’s event.
This is the first major international event of 2022 that was rescheduled due to the spread of the omicron variant. The World Health Organization reported omicron cases were confirmed in 89 countries, with the number of cases doubling every 1.5 to three days.
Photo: Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin at the 2020 World Economic Forum. Photo courtesy of World Economic Forum / Flick Creative Commons
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