The new coronavirus has claimed two iconic springtime events in New York City.
Organizers of the annual New York International Auto Show at the Javits Center have rescheduled the 10-day event — while the New York City Half Marathon has been canceled in its entirety, event planners announced Tuesday amid a coronavirus outbreak in the metropolitan area.
The half marathon was canned just days before runners were to step off this Sunday.
“We know this is a challenging time for everyone, and the cancellation of the NYC Half is disappointing news to many, but the resources necessary to organize an event with 25,000 runners on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan have become strained during this difficult period,” New York Road Runners, the marathon organizers, announced in a statement.
The auto show, originally scheduled for April with expectations to draw close to a million visitors, will now be held in the late summer — from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6, 2020.
“We are taking this extraordinary step to help protect our attendees, exhibitors and all participants from the coronavirus,” said Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, the organization that owns and operates the New York Auto Show.
“For 120 years, ‘the show must go on’ has been heavily embedded in our DNA, and while the decision to move the show dates didn’t come easy, our top priority remains with the health and well-being of all those involved in this historic event,” Schienberg added.
The preemptive measures come days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a “state of emergency” in New York to combat a soaring number of COVID-19 cases.
The state has documented at least 173 coronavirus patients, including 36 cases in New York City and more than 100 in Westchester County.
Cuomo on Tuesday said he would deploy the National Guard to enforce a mile-radius coronavirus “containment area” in the New Rochelle community of Westchester, which could have the largest cluster of patients int he United States, according to the governor.