Rio de Janeiro cancels New Year’s celebration after Ómicron’s arrival in Brazil

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro canceled the New Years celebrations after Brazil confirmed the first known cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the largest country in Latin America.

Eduardo Paes tweeted on Saturday that he will follow the recommendations of the state of Rio to suspend the celebrations, despite the city’s own opinion otherwise.

“We respect science,” Paes tweeted, saying there are differing opinions between city and state science committees, but preferring to stick with the more restrictive.

“The city committee says it can go ahead and the state says no. So it can’t be done. Let’s cancel the official celebration of New Year in Rio, “he said.

The cancellation of the holiday, which attracts millions of residents and tourists to the world famous copacabana beach To see the fireworks, it was not a surprise.

In Brazil, the pandemic has claimed more than 615,000 lives, the second-highest total in the world after the United States.