In a situation that spread grimly on Wednesday, Brazil health authorities had to stall the administration of the second COVID-19 dose among the vulnerable.
Rio de Janeiro suspends Covid-19 vaccination campaign until next week because the Brazilian city has run out of doses, Mayor Eduardo Paes announced. I have been informed that the new doses did not arrive. We will have to interrupt our campaign from Tuesday, Paes wrote on Twitter.
Brazil wraps up odd Carnival without samba but with clandestine parties 3 minutes read
Rio de Janeiro, Feb 16 (efe-epa).- Brazil on Tuesday is wrapping up this year’s Carnival, an unusual celebration given the lack of samba school parades, the huge street festivities and other mass gatherings although some clandestine parties were indeed held threatening to worsen the coronavirus pandemic in the South American giant, which has been hard-hit by Covid-19.
The costumes, glitter bodypaint and pulsing musical rhythms at the street dances this year have given way to a broad police operation in the country’s main cities to prevent large gatherings of people not willing to completely shelve their celebrating this year.
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“Carnival is this yearly opportunity for catharsis, for relief,” said Wagner Gonçalves, the creative art director, or
carnavalesco, of Estácio de Sá, one of Rio’s oldest and most traditional samba schools. “It is this encounter with joy and with unity. The world unites in this moment, to celebrate life, to celebrate joy.”
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes and Carnival King Momo Djeferson Mendes da Silva prepare to pass the key to the city to healthcare workers at a ceremony Friday in homage to COVID-19 victims.
(Bruna Prado / Associated Press)
But COVID-19 changed that. The pandemic has dealt a punishing blow to Brazil, infecting over 9.7 million people, claiming the lives of 236,000, in one of the world’s worst outbreaks. Even the arrival of vaccines has brought little relief as doses run low.