CARNIVAL 2022 CANCELED IN 58 BRAZILIAN CITIES DUE TO COVID-19 FEARS

Fri 26 November 2021:

According to local press, at least 58 cities in the southeast Brazilian states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais have decided to cancel Carnival 2022 celebrations due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

The famous Brazilian festival was canceled in 2021, in the midst of the country’s second wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

According to local press reports, four cities in Minas Gerais and 54 in Sao Paulo, including Franca, Sorocaba, Suzano, Botucatu, Poa, and Mogi das Cruzes, have decided to cancel the celebrations this year as well.

Furthermore, several cities are in financial distress, including Poa and Sorocaba, which have canceled their Carnival 2022 subsidies.

“During Carnival, people from all over the country will be coming and going. We cannot take any more risks after everything we have suffered due to the pandemic,” Mayor of Franca Alexandre Ferreira told reporters.

Sao Paulo will proceed with its official parade at the Sambadrome and street parties, for which 867 neighborhood groups have registered.

Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian city best known for its Carnival celebrations, has also confirmed that this year’s events will take place.

Bolsonaro against Carnival Resumption

“As far as I’m concerned, we shouldn’t have carnival,” Bolsonaro, 66, said in an interview, as Brazil debates whether to go ahead with the festivities held from February 25 to March 1.

Bolsonaro said he believed it was too soon, but that the decision was up to state and local authorities.

“I don’t want to get involved, because it could just cause another controversy,” he told radio network Sociedade.

“Last February, the pandemic was just arriving, we didn’t know much about it. I declared an emergency and the governors and mayors all ignored it. They went ahead with carnival. Then the consequences came, and people try to say I’m the one responsible.”

With more than 60 per cent of Brazil’s 213 million people now fully vaccinated, the average daily COVID-19 death count has fallen from more than 3,000 in April to around 200.

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