COVID-19 Update – 10 March, 2020
Every four years we look forward to seeing the participants, industry partners and all those involved from around the world at SpineWeek.
Over the past few weeks, we have been closely monitoring and evaluating the situation around COVID-19 to ensure we are taking the necessary measures to protect the health and wellbeing of SpineWeek attendees. Unfortunately, the Australian Government implemented travel bans from China, Iran and Korea. Hospitals, universities and companies implemented travel bans towards their staff causing most of the participating societies, representing over 90% of the delegates to cancel their attendance.
These decisions unfortunately make that Spineweek 2020 cannot be held as planned.
Any further updates regarding SpineWeek 2020 will be published on www.spineweek.org.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 6 March, 2020
The current situation with the Coronavirus is having a considerable impact on SpineWeek, from 27 April to 1 May, 2020, in Melbourne, Australia. The following societies have pulled out from the meeting:
- CAOS
- KSSS
- KSS
- ISSLS
- APSS
However, anybody already registered for one of those societies will be welcome to attend the remaining sessions.
If you have papers or posters accepted for the APSS program we will make sure that you will be able to present them in one of the other programmes or specific Spineweek sessions.
Any further changes will be announced on this website which we will try to keep updated as well as possible, taking into account the unpredictability of the current situation.
CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 4 March, 2020
After today’s meeting with a representative of the Melbourne Convention Bureau, the SpineWeek Committee has opted to continue with the organisation of the Meeting.
The SpineWeek Committee, in consultation with the PCO and local authorities in Australia is monitoring the situation on a daily basis. The Government of the State of Victoria (Melbourne) offers its full support to SpineWeek and its participants and will take all health measures necessary to contribute to the success of a safe SpineWeek.
Whereas it is true that delegates from mainland China and Iran are banned from traveling to Melbourne at this stage, there is no such restriction for people traveling from elsewhere. We are very grateful for the ongoing support of our exhibitors and participants who continue to register and plan for the Meeting and we have not experienced any substantial impact so far.
Mindful of our duty as organisers, we are carefully consulting with experts on what the appropriate sanitary, health and other measures should be. We can assure you that all appropriate measures as recommended by the WHO will be in place at SpineWeek. We will also introduce SpineWeek as a handshake/hug/kiss-free meeting.
COVID-19 Preparedness and Frequently Asked Questions are mentioned hereunder.
We look forward to welcoming you to SpineWeek in Melbourne in April and wish you, your business colleagues, your communities and your families good wishes and resilience in the months to come.
