Carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, scheduled for late February, have been postponed until April due to the new wave of Covid-19, authorities said on Friday.
The new scheduled date is April 21, which marks the start of a long holiday weekend.
“The town halls of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have decided to postpone the parades of the samba schools” for the end of April, “due to the current situation of the pandemic in Brazil and the need to preserve lives”, have announced in a press release the authorities of the two largest Brazilian cities.
The decision to postpone the sambadrome parades in Rio, which attract tourists from around the world, as well as those in Sao Paulo, was announced after a virtual meeting between mayors, their health secretaries and representatives of samba schools in the two states.
Brazil, the second most affected country in the world by the pandemic with more than 622,000 deaths, broke its daily record for infections this week with 204,854 new cases recorded in one day.
“It is a necessary postponement, we will have much more security to carry out (the carnival) at the end of April,” said Rio de Janeiro Health Secretary Daniel Soranz.
“Following the curve of the pandemic in other countries, we think it is very difficult for the current wave to continue until April,” he added.
Leagues representing samba schools in Rio and Sao Paulo said they supported the authorities’ decision.
“It’s the right attitude, it has the full support of the samba schools and we hope that on April 21 we can have a party full of joy as the carnival requires,” said Sideni Carriuolo, president of the league. samba schools in Sao Paulo, who attended the discussions with the authorities.
Samba schools, neighborhood organizations with up to 4,000 members each, spend months preparing their parades of elaborate carriages, thousands of handcrafted costumes, and dancers and musicians rehearsing for months to shine. before the jurors of the Sambadrome.
The street carnival in both cities had already been canceled earlier this month due to the health situation.
Brazil has vaccinated nearly 70% of its 213 million people with two doses of the vaccine against Covid-19.
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