CES mandates COVID-19 testing for participants from China

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The organizer of CES, the world's largest IT and electronics exhibition opening on the 5th, has made it mandatory for participants departing from China to submit a negative COVID-19 test certificate.

According to major foreign media on the 2nd (local time), the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which hosts CES, announced that all travelers coming from mainland China, Macau, and Hong Kong must submit a negative COVID-19 test certificate to participate in the event.

The U.S. health authorities have mandated that travelers from China submit a negative COVID-19 test certificate starting from the 5th of this month. This CTA measure is an early implementation of that requirement. Accordingly, CES participants arriving in the U.S. from China between the 1st and 4th must submit a negative COVID-19 test certificate completed within 48 hours.

This CES, held in Las Vegas, USA, will return to normal and be conducted as an offline face-to-face event over four days for the first time in three years. Due to the spread of COVID-19, the event was held online in 2021, and last year the event period was shortened to three days due to the spread of the Omicron variant.

The organizer expects this year's CES attendance to reach a record high of over 100,000 people and plans to provide free COVID-19 antigen tests to participants.