The 2020 World Team Table Tennis Championships have been postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) announced in a statement on Tuesday.

The championships are due to take place in Busan, South Korea, from March 22 to 29. However, fears over the increasingly rapid spread of the epidemic in the metropolis have rescheduled the showpiece event for June 21-28 this year. It is the latest sporting event to be affected in recent week.

The decision was made after an emergency meeting between the ITTF senior management, the Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA) and the city of Busan representatives. The ITTF said they will continue to monitor the situation closely and provide further updates when more information comes to hand.

Before the announcement, 37 teams have already announced their withdrawal from the event. The confirmed coronavirus cases in the country have already reached 833, and 25 of them are in Busan. Moreover, Dageu, where some 100 infected cases have been confirmed, is only 100 kilometers away from Busan.

Last Friday, the confirmation of two new cases led to the cancelling of the championships' first-stage draw on the following day. The ITTF said they are "taking advice from the World Health Organization and working with the Korean government to put in place the most robust health and safety measures."

As the world's biggest international table tennis event, the Team Championships usually will have 72 men's and 72 women's teams in the competition. Currently, the withdrawn teams included the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), China's Macao Special Administrative Region and the Maldives, among others.

China, as the defending champions of both men's and women's events, are training in Doha, capital of Qatar, at the moment. The teams' original plan was to arrive in Busan on March 11 before having a week-long joint practice with the South Korean teams.