IDEM in Singapore postponed owing to COVID-19 restrictions

Jeremy Booth, Dental Tribune International

Tue. 25. January 2022

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SINGAPORE: The International Dental Exhibition and Meeting (IDEM) 2022 has been postponed owing to the travel and safety restrictions currently in place in the Asia Pacific region. The business-to-business trade fair was due to open its doors in April but will now take place from 7 to 9 October.

Koelnmesse and the Singapore Dental Association, who jointly organise the event, announced the postponement on 24 January in a statement to the press. They stressed the importance of dental industry professionals being able to travel to Singapore to attend the event in person and cited COVID-19 restrictions as grounds for the change of dates.

“[Our] aim is to provide a comprehensive experience and bring together exhibitors and attendees from all over the world. With this in mind, the 12^th edition of IDEM will take place between 7 and 9 October 2022 at Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, instead of the originally scheduled dates of 8–10 April 2022,” the announcement read.

Mathias Kuepper, managing director of Koelnmesse, added: “The decision to postpone IDEM to latter half of 2022, despite receiving strong interest and bookings from exhibitors and country pavilions, was not taken lightly. Before restrictions were tightened owing to the Omicron variant, IDEM would have been on track for the in-person event in April. Ultimately, our goal as the organisers of IDEM is to bring together the Asia Pacific dental community to experience the full offerings of IDEM in a safe manner.”

“The decision to postpone IDEM to latter half of 2022 [...] was not taken lightly” – Mathias Kuepper, managing director of Koelnmesse

The October event is set to feature around 400 local and international exhibitors and a scientific conference, which will include more than 30 presentations and workshops.

Singapore’s Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reported that the city state recorded nearly 3,500 new daily infections on 23 January. Its weekly infection growth rate on 23 January was 2.75, and it continues to creep towards the previous peak of 3.01 recorded on 30 August. Any number above 1 indicates that new infections are rising.

CNA reported on 21 January that Singapore was bracing for a sharp rise in SARS-CoV-2 infections as the Omicron variant spreads. The news outlet quoted Gan Kim Yong, co-chair of Singapore’s multi-ministry COVID-19 task force, as saying that Omicron was likely to account for up to 90% of new infections in the coming weeks. “Given that the Omicron variant is more infectious, it is likely that we will soon see a significant wave,” he commented.

A number of Asia Pacific nations have announced rising Omicron cases and new restrictions in the last seven days, including Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea. China tested two million residents of the Fengtai district of Beijing after a cluster of a few dozen cases emerged in the area just two weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics on 4 February.

IDEM is the second major dental event to be postponed so far in 2022. Last week it was announced that the São Paulo International Dental Meeting (CIOSP) will take place in late June, instead of January.