San Francisco (CNN Business) South by Southwest, the annual tech, film and music conference in Austin, will proceed as planned despite concerns about coronavirus, Austin public health officials said during a press conference on Wednesday.

"It's important for us to remember at this stage that we're actively evaluating mass gatherings on a daily basis," said Mark Escott, the interim medical director and health authority for Austin Public Health. "Right now there's no evidence that closing South by Southwest or other activities is going to make this community safer. We're constantly monitoring that situation."

The organizers behind SXSW, which is scheduled to take place from March 13 to March 22, had come under public pressure in recent days to cancel the event. Several high-profile attendees had also dropped out, citing concerns about the virus.

Facebook FB Intel INTC Twitter was the first big company to pull out of the event, citing its new policy restricting all business travel because of the virus., Vevo and Mashable soon followed suit.

Popular video app TikTok also backed out, saying it would explore "alternative ways" to bring its planned SXSW content to audiences. "While we think the risk is relatively low, we are erring on the side of caution," a TikTok spokesperson told CNN Business on Tuesday.

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