Manaco, March 14  The world race walking team championships, scheduled to take place in Minsk on May 2-3, have been postponed due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

In a media release, the World Athletics said: "It is with regret that we have agreed with the Belarus Athletic Federation and the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Belarus to postpone the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Minsk 2020 (May 2-3), due to the ongoing challenges created by the spread of new coronavirus (COVID-19) internationally."

"The Belarus Government announced today (Friday) that it was cancelling all mass events until at least early April," it added.

The World Athletics has also come out with temporary work arrangement in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus, which has been declared as pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Over 1,30,000 people have been globally infected with coronavirus and more than 4.000 have lost their lives with the disease.