Rio de Janeiro hopes the end of the covid to organize the "Carnival of the century"

The bodies covered in sequins jiggle to the frenetic rhythm of the percussions: the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro have resumed their rehearsals for the carnival that all hope for grandiose - if the Covid does not come again to prevent the party, like the year latest. After a two-year wait, the Cariocas are preparing to celebrate their biggest carnival in a century at the end of February. “

”, explains Moacyr da Silva Pinto, known as“

”, percussion manager of the Unidos do Viradouro school. This 65-year-old man with an emaciated face directs about fifty percussionists with large hand gestures, a whistle hanging from his neck.

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Several dozen members of Viradouro sing, dance and hug on the track, showing without restraint - and for the most part without a mask - how happy they are to be together.

"

", confides Leonina Gabriel, 35 years old.

Viradouro was crowned champion of the last edition, in 2020, after two nights of parades during which 12 samba schools are rated on various criteria such as harmony, the quality of the floats or the chosen theme.

The local authorities conditioned the holding of the carnival, from February 25 to March 1, to the epidemiological situation, which has improved markedly since the peak of the southern winter, thanks to the advance of vaccination.

But Mayor Eduardo Paes, who said two months ago that it would be “

” to impose barrier gestures during the festivities, is now more cautious.

“

”he admitted to the weekly

Inspired by the carnival of 1919, after the Spanish flu epidemic

While waiting for the authorities to make a decision, the samba schools continue to work hard to make thousands of costumes on time, especially the monumental floats as tall as multi-storey buildings.

Carpenters, welders, stylists, costume designers: dozens of little hands are busy in the large hangars of the Cité de la Samba, in the port area of ​​Rio, where each school has a space to prepare its parade, in the most big secret.

“

” explains architect Marcus Ferreira, one of Viradouro's creative directors.

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This is particularly the case of Simone dos Santos, 46, head of costume designers, who had to find odd jobs to make ends meet after the cancellation of the last festivities. "

" she laments, recalling that she has been working in this sector since she was 20 years old. Viradouro has rightly chosen the carnival of 1919 as its theme, experienced as a kind of catharsis to celebrate the end of the Spanish flu epidemic, which had killed between 50 and 100 million people around the world. At the time, samba schools did not yet exist, but columnists report unparalleled popular fervor. "

”, assures Master Ciça. Beyond the parades of the sambodrome, the party will also take place in the streets, with more than 500 “

”, sassy processions of millions of Cariocas and tourists who dance from morning to night and where alcohol flows freely.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who had already criticized the excesses of carnival before the pandemic, said Thursday that, if it were up to him, "

".

More than 60% of Brazilians have received two doses of vaccine, a proportion still insufficient for specialists, for whom the new wave of contaminations in Europe must serve as a warning.

For Mariângela Simão, Brazilian specialist in charge of access to medicines at the WHO, the idea of ​​a return to carnival is "

".

Since the start of the pandemic, the country has recorded at least 600,000 deaths from covid.

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