The electronic devices market will be affected greatly by the COVID-19 outbreak since Chinese electronic factories have been closing en masse due to the epidemic causing a shortage in world supply, said Khalil Hassan Khalil, chairperson of the Digital Economy and Technology General Division (DETGD) at the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce. He added that up until now there has been no clear impact on the electronic devices market, however, according to the current data, there will definitely be a negative impact on the electronics and industry in general. At first, the effect of the virus did not seem drastic, but with its rapid spread into many countries, the global economy started to be impacted as several countries halt their factories operating in China, so the negative economic effects of the crisis is becoming "inevitable". Even industries of washing machines and refrigerators will be affected negatively due to the interruption of importing motherboards essential in the manufacturing process, which mainly come from Chinese factories. Moreover, the digital transformation plans may be affected by the interruption in manufacturing of some hardware components that are part of the mechanisation and digital transformation processes. COVID-19 continues to spread globally, except Antarctica. As of now, it has reached more than 80 countries since its appearance in the Chinese city of Wuhan late December 2019. Coronavirus toll has now exceeded 3,203 deaths, out of more than 93,000 confirmed cases worldwide, the vast majority of whom were in China. During the past 24 hours, total coronavirus deaths outside China rose to about 220 deaths in 13 countries – mostly in Iran, with 77 deaths out of more than 23,000 cases.
