Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey is reconsidering plans to spend part of the year in Africa in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
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.
So far 27 cases have been confirmed across Africa in Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt.
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.
The company tweeted his comments about the cancelled trip:
Social embed from twitter
Africa will be one of the most populated continents in the next 20-30 yrs, the tech innovation is incredible w/ a large portion of the population still coming onto the internet. Huge opportunity especially for young people to join Twitter + for us to learn to best serve them.
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.
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