The Czech town has replaced Beijing as the venue for the penultimate regular World Cup of the campaign and is now scheduled to hold back-to-back competitions between March 1 and 14.

The event in the Chinese capital had been due to serve as a warm-up for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games before being cancelled after organisers scrapped the test events.

Action in Nové Město will take place a week later than the planned dates for the Beijing event.

Oslo will remain as the host of the World Cup final, scheduled to run from March 16 to 21.

Organising Committees and the IBU will assess whether the events can be staged at the end of January.

The IBU said there would be an "evaluation of the status of the pandemic in their respective countries and a review of the support of the national authorities to hold the events".

The 2020-2021 World Cup season is set to be held across only six venues - Kontiolahti, Hochfilzen, Oberhof, Antholz-Anterselva, Nové Město and Oslo - to reduce the risk posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pokljuka in Slovenia is due to stage the Biathlon World Championships from February 10 to 21.

"We are pleased to have confirmed the schedule for the full 2020-2021 season which will allow our athletes and National Federations to prepare for the next four months of competition," said IBU President Olle Dahlin.

"While we must remain flexible to change, we are delighted that we have been able to keep the same number of World Cup events as we originally planned for next season and that we have ensured that all levels of biathlon will be served with international competitions.

"It is of course disappointing that we will not be able to visit every World Cup venue we had intended and we will miss not visiting Beijing in the third trimester. 

"But the health of our biathlon family has always been our first priority and guided our decision making throughout this process.

"The upcoming 2020-2021 season will be unlike any the biathlon family has ever experienced. 

"But with the biathlon family all working together we are optimistic that we will have many sporting highlights."