The Chinese New Year festivities scheduled to take place in Paris on Sunday have been canceled, said Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, on Sunday, where two of the three confirmed cases of coronavirus in France are hospitalized. "Yesterday I met the Chinese community in Paris who wished to cancel the parade planned for this afternoon in Place de la République," said the mayor on Europe 1 / Les Echos / Cnews, adding that "it is the precautionary principle which prevails ”.
#Coronavirus: Chinese New Year festivities canceled in Paris
"The Chinese community in Paris wanted to cancel the parade planned for this afternoon in Place de la République. Associations were not at heart for the party," said Anne Hidalgo, guest of #LeGrandRDV pic.twitter.com/ urPqfPE91X
"The representatives of Chinese associations met this afternoon [Saturday] at the headquarters of the association of Chinese residents in France, said a statement from the organizing associations. Faced with the coronavirus epidemic, in order to avoid all risks, it was decided, with the Chinese Embassy in France, to cancel the celebration of the Chinese New Year planned at Place de la République. "
Anne Hidalgo did not specify if the other festivities scheduled almost everywhere in the capital over the next few days would be canceled, including the grand parade scheduled for Sunday February 2 in the 13th arrondissement, where a large part of the Chinese community lives in Paris.
Two month preparations
The parade was to leave this Sunday at 2 p.m. Place de la République to descend rue du Temple and rue de Turbigo, in the 3rd arrondissement. The event had been prepared for two months by the Chinese associations. Saturday, the first day of the year of the rat, a small procession had paraded rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris with a dragon, a few dancers and musicians and in front of a hundred tourists, noted an AFP journalist.
Our file on the coronavirus
Three positive cases for the Chinese coronavirus were announced Friday evening in France, two in Paris and one in Bordeaux, the first in Europe. All had recently arrived from China and had stayed in Wuhan, the big city where this new infection appeared in December. Nearly 2,000 people have been infected in China, where 56 have died, according to the latest official statement on Sunday.
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