In an interview with CNN Radio, the Rio de Janeiro State Health Secretary, Alexandre Chieppe, stated that the fact that there is a schedule for New Year’s Eve and Carnival parties “does not mean that eventually restrictive measures cannot return.”
According to him, the numbers of the Covid-19 pandemic are monitored on a daily basis.
“Both from the national scene, as well as from the state of Rio de Janeiro, as worldwide, if there is an appearance of any novelty, a new strain that escapes vaccination, which does not guarantee adequate protection, obviously any decision regarding parties can be reviewed.”
Asked about the Ômicron variant, which worries authorities around the world, Chieppe said that the behavior of the strain, its transmissibility, possible escape from vaccines and aggressiveness is still unknown.
“This set of factors that will determine the measures to be adopted, from Carnival with more flexibility or even the non-realization of parties, will depend on the day to day”, he guaranteed.
Even so, the secretary made the reservation that the state scenario – and Brazil, in general – is “completely different” from the European one, especially in relation to vaccination coverage.
“We have homogeneity of vaccination coverage, part of the high-risk population with a third dose, this made us go through the waves of transmission in Europe without increasing the number of cases, now we need to advance more and more in vaccination.”
Alexandre Chiappe also said that the expectation is that the state of Rio de Janeiro will reach 100% of people over 12 years old vaccinated against Covid-19 with two doses and a large part of those eligible with the third dose.
Reference: CNN Brasil