Brazil: the New Year's party in Rio will take place

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro assured Thursday, December 9 that the New Year's festivities would take place, five days after announcing their cancellation due to concerns related to Covid-19.

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With this turnaround, the transition to the year 2022 in Brazil's second city will therefore have as its highlight the famous fireworks display on Copacabana beach. The planned concerts, however, were canceled, Mayor Eduardo Paes told a press conference.

the New Year, he added.

insisted Eduardo Paes.

On Saturday, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro had yet announced

on Twitter that the New Year's festivities were canceled, while the whole world was worried about the appearance of the new Omicron variant.

He finally reversed his decision after having multiplied this week the meetings with the health authorities and the governor of the State of Rio, Claudio Castro.

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To avoid concentrating all the festivities on Copacabana beach alone, the town hall decided to organize nine more fireworks in other areas of the city, including in popular areas in the north or west of Rio.

The Copacabana area will also be closed to traffic from 7:00 p.m. on December 31.

The New Year's festivities were canceled a year ago because of the pandemic, which has left more than 615,000 dead in Brazil, the second most bereaved country in the world after the United States.

Thanks to the advance of vaccination, the number of deaths and infections has fallen sharply in recent weeks.

Eduardo Maes did not mention the famous Rio carnival, which was supposed to take place from February 25 to March 1. Several Brazilian cities have already canceled their carnival, but Rio has kept it until further notice, subject to a controlled health situation.