The World Health Organization (WHO) has upgraded the global risk from the new coronavirus (COVID-19) to ‘Very High’ as the infectious disease continues to spread and its overall effect on global health is still unknown.

According to the WHO reports, there are 89,527 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3,056 deaths reported globally in 67 countries.

Keeping the same in view and to avoid any further possible spread of the virus, more tech companies are either postponing or cancelling their scheduled events. Google and Microsoft are the two latest companies to cancel their upcoming US-based events.

Google’s Cloud Next in San Francisco in April and Microsoft’s MVP Summit in Seattle in March now stand cancelled and both companies have made those events ‘digital-first’. The company previously cancelled its northern California-based ‘Global News Initiative’ summit.

“We are transforming the event into Google Cloud Next ’20: Digital Connect, a free, global, digital-first, multi-day event connecting our attendees to Next ’20 content and each other through streamed keynotes, breakout sessions, interactive learning and digital ask an expert’ sessions with Google teams,” Google said in a statement.

The company said it would refund attendees both the cost of tickets for the event and hotel stays, and all registered attendees will be given access to the digital version of the event.

Microsoft’s MVP Summit, a networking event for its “Most Valuable Professional” programme in March, has also turned into a virtual event.

Google I/O and Microsoft Build conferences are slated for May which are also under the scanner. Facebook has already cancelled its F8 developer conference in May.

Cloud major Oracle announced it is postponing the flagship OpenWorld Asia, currently scheduled for April 2020 in Singapore, owing to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns.

Meanwhile, Amazon has confirmed that two of its employees have been infected with the new coronavirus (COVID-19) in Italy.

A Google employee in Switzerland was also tested positive for COVID-19 last week at its office in Zurich, Switzerland.

Tech companies like Twitter and e-tailer Amazon have halted all non-essential travel, including trips within the US. Twitter said that it would also restrict all nonessential business travel for its employees and partners.

(With input from agencies)