New Year’s Eve in Rio de Janeiro is cancelled, announces Paes

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes (PSD), announced this Saturday morning (4) that New Year’s Eve celebrations in the city are cancelled.

“I make the decision with sadness, but we cannot organize the celebration without the guarantee of all health authorities,” he said, in a publication on Twitter.

“We respect science. As there are divergent opinions between scientific committees, we will always stick to the most restrictive. The city council’s committee says it can. The state’s committee [do Rio de Janeiro] says no”, he justified.

A few weeks before New Year’s Eve, the party still had no formal sponsorship. According to Riotur, the municipal body responsible for the event, the companies were waiting for a decision from the city hall to confirm the amount.

Paes had already stated that he would analyze the epidemiological scenario and that he would make a decision on whether or not to maintain the party until the 15th.

Saturday’s announcement comes after other cities have canceled New Year’s celebrations in the face of the advance of the omicron variant of the coronavirus across the country.

In Rio, Niterói and Campos dos Goytacazes, for example, have already announced that they will not have public events at the turn of the year.

Last Monday (29), the mayor of Salvador, Bruno Reis (DEM), also decided not to carry out fireworks in the city. On the occasion, he cited, in addition to the emergence of the omicron variant, the increase in cases that affects the European continent in recent weeks.

“I know the importance of the event for the economy of our city, but we continue to put people’s lives first”, wrote Reis on social networks.

Florianópolis and Belo Horizonte had already taken a similar decision. In Santos, on the coast of São Paulo, there will be no fireworks. The edge will have free access for people to circulate, but the city has prohibited the assembly of tents or private tents.

“I hope I can be in Copacabana hugging everyone in the transition from 22 to 23. It will be missed, but the important thing is that we continue vaccinating and saving lives,” said Paes.