Prof. Syed Atiqul Haq APLAR President

After initially postponing its annual scientific meeting in Japan until October, the Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology  (APLAR) has now bowed to the inevitable and made the decision to run a virtual only congress for the year 2020.

The APLAR Executive Committee says the 2020 Virtual Congress will now be hosted online from 24 – 29 October in place of the deferred that had been postponed from August to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The congress will remain a full educational and scientific experience, and will facilitate interactions among physicians, researchers, scientists, clinicians and other health professionals from the Asia Pacific region,” it says in a statement.

“We are passionate in our belief that APLAR 2020, as the pre-eminent rheumatology congress for regional practitioners and researchers, should remain the catalyst event for our colleagues from across all of Asia Pacific to look forward to – so that we can come together to re-build a post-COVID-19 world!”

APLAR had originally planned to hold a conference in conjunction with the  Japan College of Rheumatology in Kyoto, but like many countries in East Asia the coronavirus pandemic has caused ongoing disruption of travel and public meetings.

After initially suppressing the COVID-19 outbreaks from sources such as the Diamond Princess cruise ship, Japan is now seeing spikes in infection numbers, and as many as 300 new cases per day.