Rio De Janeiro Cancels Annual Carnival Street Parade Due To Spike In COVID-19 Cases And Omicron Threats

Illustrated parade jalanan dalam Karnaval Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Wikimedia Commons/Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil)

JAKARTA - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has decided to cancel street parades and parties during the world-famous Carnival for a second year due to an increase in COVID-19 cases and the threat of the arrival of the Omicron coronavirus variant, city officials said Tuesday.

However, the spectacular parade of Rio's samba schools, watched by the public from the stands of the City of the Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome, will continue, unlike last year, with health precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes announced that after a meeting with health authorities, his city would cancel a street event that draws hundreds of thousands of revelers to the carnival each year.

"The street carnival, basically, because of the democratic aspect it has, makes it impossible to carry out any inspections," Paes said in an internet live broadcast, citing Reuters January 5.

Other Brazilian cities have also canceled their Carnival parades. Last week, the northeastern city of Salvador announced it would not celebrate the event. Meanwhile, Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais state, has also decided not to sponsor or invest in this year's street parade, local media reported.

Next, Sao Paulo, the capital of Brazil's richest state, plans to shift its street parade to the city's Interlagos Formula One racing circuit, reports the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

To note, cases of COVID-19 infection have increased again in Brazil. The Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported 18.759 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, with 175 deaths from COVID-19. About 170 cases of Omicron have been confirmed in the country, up from 32 just two weeks ago, he said.