The city of Rio de Janeiro will not celebrate the New Year with the usual festivities due to the arrival in Brazil of the new Omicron variant, city authorities announced on Saturday.

This decision raises fears of a possible cancellation of the famous carnival, which should take place from February 25 to March 1, already canceled last year due to the Covid-19 epidemic.

"We are going to cancel the official celebration of the New Year", the festivities that usually bring together on the beach of Copacabana, with music and fireworks, some three million people, declared "with sadness" the mayor of the city, Eduardo Paes, on Twitter.

Omicron makes people tremble

So far, Brazil has six confirmed cases of people infected with the Omicron variant, two in Brasilia, one in Porto Alegre and three in Sao Paulo, which also canceled its New Year celebrations on Friday. About 20 other capitals provinces (out of 27 in all) made the same decision.

These new restrictions cast doubts on the organization of the carnival in Brazil, in particular that of Rio, one of the biggest festivals on the planet.

“We are three months before the carnival.

I always trust science.

Hopefully we will not have to cancel the carnival as well, ”commented Eduardo Paes during a press conference at the end of the week.

It has been several weeks since the mayor of the city has made the organization of the carnival dependent on the epidemiological situation, which has clearly improved thanks to vaccination (63% of the 213 million Brazilians are fully vaccinated).

Carnival preparations continue

"I think it's good to cancel the carnival, to cancel the New Year's holidays, because once all that is over, there is still the disease and it is complicated for Brazil", reacted to AFP Ismael Moreira dos Santos, a 59-year-old street vendor on Copacabana beach.

In the meantime, Rio's samba schools are continuing with rehearsals and making thousands of costumes, masks and carnival floats that could not be released last year because of the Covid-19.

On Friday, the scientific committee of nine states in northeastern Brazil advocated the cancellation of carnival festivities in this area, which includes Salvador and Recife.

Since Monday, this country has closed its air borders with six African countries (South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe), for fear of the Omicron variant.

Brazil has deplored more than 615,000 deaths linked to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, which officially makes it the second most bereaved country in the world behind the United States.

World

Argentina: Liner isolated after suspicion of Covid-19 can resume its journey

Science

Chile: Presentation of a new dinosaur with an unprecedented tail

  • Covid 19

  • Rio

  • Brazil

  • Coronavirus

  • World

  • 0 comment

  • 0 share

    • Share on Messenger

    • Share on Facebook

    • Share on twitter

    • Share on Flipboard

    • Share on Pinterest

    • Share on Linkedin

    • Send by Mail

  • To safeguard

  • A fault ?

  • To print