Río de Janeiro,.- Río de Janeiro y Sao Paulo, las dos mayores ciudades de Brasil, anunciaron este viernes el aplazamiento, hasta el 21 de abril y como medida para frenar el avance de la pandemia de la covid-19, de los desfiles de las escuelas de samba del carnaval que estaban previstos para febrero.
Both cities had already announced the suspension this year of the so -called Rúa Carnival, which is animated by the troupes and bands that parade free of charge to millions of people in the streets, and now they chose to postpone, "for a date with possible better sanitary conditions", the carnival made within its sambódromos.
The mayors initially considered that, because they were carried out in stages with restricted access such as the sambódromos, where it would be possible in Brazil.
But the record numbers of infections that Brazil has been registering in recent days due to the rapid propagation of the omicron, a variant of the most contagious COVID-19, forced them to choose to postpone the shows in their sambodromes.
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The postponement of the event in the two largest cities in Brazil, one of the countries most punished by COVID-19 in the world, was announced after a meeting on Friday night among the mayors of Rio, Eduardo Paes, and Sao Paulo, Ricardo Nunes.
Both alleged that they chose to follow recommendations from scientists, who consider not very prudent to promote agglomerations of thousands of people at a time when, driven by the omicron variant, the COVID records record contagios in Brazil.
The specialists consider that the numbers will continue to grow in the coming weeks and that the third wave of the pandemic will reach its beak in Brazil in February, when it will begin to yield, as has been happening in European countries that also registered record numbers of infections for infections by theomicron.
The date chosen for the realization of the parades, on April 21, corresponds to a Thursday that is a national holiday in Brazil, when the day of the independence leader is commemorated, so that the granting of an additional municipal festive on Friday 22 ofApril would allow organizing a four -day carnival.
Decision respects science but also the economy
But both mayors admitted that their decision to postpone the party also took into account that the festive event mobilizes the economy and generates employment and rent to thousands of people, especially scarce resources, which were already affected by the carnival suspension last year equallyFor pandemia.
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"It was a decision that we made from a scientific reading, but we want to show that we respect science but that we also respect an activity that is important for the economy," said the mayor of Rio de Janeiro in statements to journalists.
“It is a postponement and not a suspension.We are aware that Carnival is a party that mobilizes many people, mainly in the most humble peripheries and neighborhoods, who work all year for that, ”she added.
The mayor of Río clarified that the decision to postpone the carnival in the Sambódromo does not mean that he is planning to reverse his decision to suspend the carnival of comparisons and bands in the streets.
“We still have to analyze that, but it will be a technical decision.The street carnival has very different characteristics.Their parades are not limited to Carnival days and even begin much earlier.We will analyze later if there will be conditions to allow it, ”he said.
Both cities, in a joint statement, justified their decision for the need to "respect the current scenario of the Covid-19 Pandemia in Brazil."
According to the last bulletin of the Ministry of Health, Brazil has been registering a record average of 117,800 Covid contagions per day.
This is the highest average since the beginning of the pandemic, in February 2020, and an average 38 times higher than that recorded less than a month ago, December 23 (3,090 daily cases), when, before the arrival ofThe omicron, the country celebrated the reduction of infections to its lowest level in 20 months.
According to the bulletin released this Friday by the health portfolio, Brazil registered in the last 24 hours 358 deaths from COVID-19 and 166,539 cases, which raise up to 622,563 the total number of victims and up to 23,751,782Pandemia.
These accumulated figures confirm to Brazil as the second country in number of deaths by COVID-19 in the world after the United States and as the third in number of infections after the American and Indian nation.