Coronavirus: Twitter's CEO to cancel trip to Africa

As a result of the deadly coronavirus' outbreak, Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey is set to cancel his proposed trip to Africa.

There have been 29 confirmed cases of the deadly virus in Africa so far with the latest confirmed in Cameroon early of Friday; Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt have all reported cases of the virus.

The BBC reported that Mr Dorsey had in November 2019 announced plans to move to the continent for up to six months this year.

He had not said in which country he would be based, but there was speculation that it could be Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria or South Africa - the countries he visited during last year's month-long trip.

On Thursday Mr Dorsey told the Morgan Stanley conference in California that he would reconsider the idea. He cited the coronavirus outbreak.

California, the state where Twitter's HQ is based, declared a state of emergency on Thursday after announcing its first coronavirus death, bringing the US death toll from the disease to 11.

Mr Dorsey said he made a mistake tweeting about the planned trip without proper context.

"When I tweeted about my intention to spend a few months in Africa this year, I made a mistake and should have provided more context about why," the tweet read.

The company tweeted his comments about the cancelled trip:

I had been working on my plans where I’d work decentralized, as my team and I do when we travel, but in light of COVID-19 and everything else going on I need to reevaluate. Either way we’ll continue to pursue opportunities in Africa.

— Twitter Investor Relations (@TwitterIR) March 5, 2020