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F1: Bahrain Grand Prix will be held with no spectators due to coronavirus fears

F1: Bahrain Grand Prix will be held with no spectators due to coronavirus fears

Bahrain Grand Prix

The second round of the Formula One Championship is set to be hosted by Bahrain, the island kingdom has faced an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

In pics:Sporting events that fell victim to coronavirus!

To cope up with the virus, the organizers have announced that the race will be conducted without any spectators. The announcement was made on Sunday.

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"Convening a major sporting event, which is open to the public and allows thousands of international travellers and local fans to interact in close proximity would not be the right thing to do at the present time," they said.

The race, which will be held on March 22, will only be televised due to the announcement.

"But to ensure that neither the sport nor its global supporter base, is unduly impacted, the race weekend itself will still go ahead as a televised event."

The Middle East has been hit by the novel coronavirus ever since its origin in Wuhan. Total of 6,980 confirmed cases are seen in the whole of the Middle East out of which 6,566 are in Iran. Bahrain faces 80 cases of COVID-19.

Earlier, Chinese Grand Prix was postponed due to the virus outbreak, the Grand Prix was scheduled to take place on April 19 in the Shanghai International Circuit which is approximately 800 kilometres away from Wuhan (the epicentre of the outbreak). However, due to the outbreak, the governing body had decided to postpone the event. The new date is yet to be declared.

Australian Grand Prix will continue as per the schedule with no hindrance due to the virus.