Virus forces Rio to cancel New Year's Eve big bash

AFP

Rio de Janeiro’s annual New Year’s Eve beach bash, already reduced in scope and format, has been canceled due to the raging coronavirus pandemic, the mayor’s office said.

What is normally a mega party with live music, a dazzling display of fireworks and hundreds of thousands of people dancing to live music had already been drastically downsized, with the fireworks canceled and several events moved online.

But the Mayor Marcelo Crivella’s office said on Tuesday in a statement that it had “opted to cancel the event out of respect for all of the victims, and to prioritize security for all.”

Some 180,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Brazil, population 212 million, which is the world’s second highest death toll only after the United States. Rio de Janeiro has the highest ratio of COVID-19 victims of any Brazilian state.

Canceling the New Year event “is a decision necessary for the protection of all. The party will be to hope for good results from the vaccine,” Crivella said in the statement.

Officials also canceled the city’s 2021 Carnival event, normally held in late February, although they left open the possibility of having a later off-season event if the vaccination campaign is successful.

The government of President Jair Bolsonaro said that Brazil has guaranteed access to 300 million vaccines, mainly those developed by Oxford University along with AstraZeneca pharmaceutical and Brazil’s Fiocruz foundation, as well as vaccines from the COVAX Facility international initiative. The government is also in talks with Pfizer to acquire another 70 million vaccines.

Brazil’s health ministry said they expect to vaccinate at-risk groups, namely the elderly, health professionals and native Brazilians, within four months of the vaccine’s approval, and all Brazilians within 16 months.

The statement followed a court order demanding dates for the start and end of the national vaccination program.