São Paulo also calls off Carnival street festivities

Following a sharp increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations over severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)—which encompasses both COVID-19 and influenza cases—São Paulo city today (Jan. 6) announced it has canceled Carnival street parties. The festivities would take place early in March. The cancellation was ruled by Mayor Ricardo Nunes after a meeting with representatives from the city’s sanitary and health authorities.

The vaccination campaign had been bringing the number of fatalities and hospitalizations over COVID-19 further and further down, but the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as well as Darwin—a new strain of the H3N2 influenza virus—led to a surge in the case tally for both diseases in the capital.

In documents released to the press, the city argues the current epidemiological landscape “points towards an exponential increase in the cases of the flu syndrome in the city, with notifications outnumbering the worst stage of the pandemic in 2021.” The worst moment of the pandemic in São Paulo was observed between the months of March and May, during the second wave of COVID-19.

Also on Wednesday, three associations representing a total of 250 street parties—or blocos, as they are known in Portuguese—reported they would not participate in the festivities.

The samba school parades, the authorities said, will be the topic for further discussion at a meeting with the League of Samba Schools. Expected to be debated at the assembly are sanitary protocols necessary for making the parades possible.