The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) being hosted in Nevada’s Las Vegas saw a dramatic dip in its in-person attendance this year, mainly due to the rising cases of COVID-19 in the United States. Organisers of the tech-rich event said on Saturday that a 70% reduction in the crowd was seen.

Consumer Technology Association, which is responsible for hosting the event annually, said that only 45,000 people attended through the days. According to media reports, more than 170,000 people were present at the Las Vegas Strip event in 2020.

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The COVID-19 pandemic led the CTA to take last year’s conference online, but the trade group decided eight months ago to bring a physical CES 2022 back to Vegas. That proved challenging amid a global spike in infections caused by the fast-moving omicron coronavirus variant that emerged late last year, according to reports from Associated Press.

The Consumer Technology Association placed restrictions on those attending the CES 2022. People were required to constantly wear face masks and produce proof of vaccination.

However, multiple tech companies retracted their participation from the conference weeks before the event citing the rise of COVID-19 cases.

Consumer Technology Association’s Vice President Jean Foster, said in a statement days before the event, “We know it will be a smaller show this year, for obvious reasons”, according to reports from Economic Times.

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Las Vegas’ economy was flushed with nearly $300 million in 2020 due to the last physical Consumer Electronics Show in January, a time when only a few people knew about the outbreak of COVID.

CES organizers encouraged but did not require attendees to get tested for COVID-19 before arriving. But attendees got an extra when picking up their conference badges — a complimentary test kit made by Abbott Laboratories, whose CEO Robert Ford is scheduled to give a keynote talk Thursday. The conference is also providing on-site testing for people with symptoms and reporting those results to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.

(With AP inputs)