RIO DE JANEIRO CANCELS CARNIVAL PARADE DUE TO RISING COVID19 CASES .. OMICRON THREAT

By Chandrayee Roy Choudhury, Canada: Rio de Janeiro has canceled street parades and parties during its world-famous Carnival for a second year due to an increase in COVID-19 cases and the threat from the arrival of the Omicron coronavirus variant, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday.

Though the spectacular parade by Rio’s samba schools, which the public watches from the stands of the city’s Marques de Sapucai Sambadrome, will go ahead, unlike last year, with health precautions to prevent spreading the virus.

Other Brazilian capitals are also cancelling their Carnival parades. Last week, the northeastern city of Salvador announced it would not celebrate the event.

Cases of COVID-19 infection are on the rise again in Brazil. The Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 18,759 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 175 deaths from COVID-19. Some 170 cases of Omicron had been confirmed in the country, up from 32 just two weeks ago.