By Rodrigo Viga Gaier
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -The New Year’s Eve party in the city of Rio de Janeiro was canceled a few days before the celebration, Mayor Eduardo Paes said Saturday, in announcing that there should be no fireworks or concerts in the capital for the second year in pandemic function.
Later, the governor of the state, Cláudio Castro, used his Twitter account to inform him that he had met with Paes and will meet next week with the mayor for a “final decision” on the matter.
“At this meeting, health technicians from the State and the municipality will participate,” said Castro.
The city’s measure is based on scientific guidelines due to Covid-19 and the emergence of the new strain, Ômicron, in the country.
The city’s scientific committee had instructed the city to monitor the behavior of Covid in the city and the new variant in order to make a decision soon. However, the state committee recommended that the party not be held.
“I’ll stick with the technical opinion that asks for more restrictions. I made the decision with great sadness and I hope, pray and work for us to celebrate. With all due respect to the other cities, but I don’t know if it will be so much missed not having New Year’s Eve in other cities as it will be missed here”, he told reporters.
“I am very sad as mayor and personally. The New Year’s Eve celebration in Rio is one of the most incredible parties in the world and incomparable. It mixes people, creeds… there’s nothing more ‘anti-Carioca’ than this Covid crap”, he added.
He also said that, in principle, there should be no restrictions in the city and stressed that vaccinated tourists are welcome. Private parties are maintained until there is guidance from the scientific committee.
Rio is experiencing the best moment of the pandemic, with falls in deaths and cases, low hospitalization and transmission, and a high level of vaccination.
The party’s cancellation was supported by health experts.
“Despite the impact on our mental health and economy, it is still right because even with 77% of the population vaccinated (complete scheme), this means that 1.5 million did not receive the vaccine”, said the researcher from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Chrystina Barros.
She stressed that it is never possible to know if the virus variants will be more aggressive and New Year’s Eve means “people coming from all over the world”, a situation in which you cannot have control.
“The decision was very right since we have to learn from the Ômicron variant and the rate of effectiveness of vaccines on this variant. The war is not over yet”, added infectious disease specialist Charbell Cury.
The hotel chain, which on Friday announced in a document its support for the New Year’s Eve party, regretted the cancellation.
“We are sorry because the hotel industry expects to reach 100% occupancy, but we understand that this is a difficult time. Last year there was no New Year’s Eve and we had 80% occupancy. Let’s hope that reservations are maintained,” said the president of the Rio hotel industry association, Alfredo Lopes.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 69,000 deaths have been registered in the state, with more than half in the capital.
On Thursday, the city of São Paulo announced the cancellation of New Year’s Eve festivities in São Paulo, also due to the new Ômicron variant of the coronavirus.
(Edition by Nayara Figueiredo)
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source https://pledgetimes.com/rio-cancels-new-years-eve-party-with-fear-of-omicron-variant-istoe-money/
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