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ADF congress 2020 cancelled

The annual conference and exhibition of the French Dental Association attracts over 25,000 visitors every year. For the first time since the 1970s, the event has been cancelled, owing to the effects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. (Image: Maria Vonotna/Shutterstock)

Thu. 10. September 2020

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PARIS, France: Today, the organisers of the Congrès de l’ADF, one of the largest and most important events on the dental calendar, announced that they have made the decision to cancel this year’s congress. The next French Dental Association (ADF) meeting will take place from 23 to 27 November 2021.

In response to a sharp increase in SARS-CoV-2 infections in France at the beginning of August, most likely due to family reunions and large gatherings during the summer holidays, the French government declared Paris and Marseilles high-risk zones for coronavirus infection on 14 August. Subsequently, local authorities imposed tougher restrictions, including the prohibition of events attended by more than 5,000 people until 31 October 2020.

It was with great disappointment that the ADF’s secretary generals, Drs Joël Trouillet and Julien Laupie, explained that, under the current circumstances, the ADF congress could not achieve the same quality and human dimension as over the past decades. Rules of social distancing and the inevitably reduced number of visitors would have jeopardised the spirit of the entire congress and exhibition. In addition, a considerable number of international exhibitors and speakers are no longer planning to travel to Paris owing to a mandatory 14-day quarantine upon returning to their countries, they said.

According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, a total of 383,293 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection and 30,805 related deaths have been reported in France to date. Today, over 8,000 new SARS-CoV-2 cases were identified.

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