Ômicron takes SP to keep masks, and capital suspends New Year’s Eve

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With the appearance of the omicron variant, the government of São Paulo decided to keep the use of masks in open spaces in the state mandatory. The same decision was taken by the City of São Paulo, which also decided to cancel New Year’s Eve in the city.

The announcement about the cancellation of the flexibility of the use of masks occurred this Thursday morning (2). Governor João Doria (PSDB) suspended the measure, which would take effect on the 11th, at the request of the Scientific Committee.

The committee recommended maintaining the obligation due to the confirmation in the state of three cases of people infected with the new strain. For the group, there are uncertainties about the impact of the variant at a time when Christmas and New Year’s Eve cause agglomerations.

The capital will also continue to demand the use of masks in open spaces. Besides, he gave up on New Year’s Eve. The measures were recommended by the Health Surveillance, which carried out a study with epidemiological and care indicators.

The conclusion of the study was scheduled to be delivered next Sunday (5), but was brought forward to the Municipal Health Department on Wednesday night (1). “I sent it to the mayor [Ricardo Nunes, do MDB], in New York, which will have to pronounce on the indicatives at 10:30 am on Thursday”, said Edson Aparecido, incumbent at the portfolio, to sheet.

​”Although all the data for the municipality are positive, but the emergence of the variant [ômicron] and also the month of December with popular commerce, the maintenance of the use of masks and the cancellation of New Year’s Eve was indicated,” stated the secretary.

Doria (PSDB), who is also in New York, defended on Wednesday that cities in the state suspend New Year’s Eve parties to fight possible contagion with the new strain.

Earlier on the same day, the São Paulo State Health Secretary, Jean Gorinchteyn, said that cities should consider confirming cases of patients with the omicron variant, when asked if the government would recommend to municipalities to cancel the parties.

Gorinchteyn also warned of the risks of end-of-the-year family gatherings, where people should be more encouraged for celebrations they didn’t promote in 2020.

“And with that there is a much greater risk, because people will flock to celebrate, drink, kiss, hug, scream and sing,” he said. “This is a risky scenario that people need to remember and the use of masks must be pressing.”

high risk

The existence of the new strain was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 24th after the emergence of cases in South Africa. Since then, there has been confirmation of infections caused by omicron in the five continents.

“Given the mutations that could confer the ability to escape an immune response, and give it an advantage in terms of transmissibility, the probability that the omicron will propagate around the world is high,” the organization said on the 29th.

On the same day, health ministers from G7 countries warned that the variant requires urgent action. “The international community faces the threat of a new highly transmissible variant of Covid-19, which requires urgent action,” the ministers said in a joint statement.

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