The coordinator of the Scientific Committee of the Northeast Consortium, Sérgio Rezende, told the CNN this Friday (3) that the decision to recommend the ban on New Year’s Eve and Carnival in the region “is tough”, but that there was no other choice due to the Ômicron variant.
“The discussion of not allowing carnival parties is very tough. So much so that this discussion has been going on for some time, and we are reluctant to make this recommendation. Now, however, with Ômicron and the increase in cases in Europe, we had to make this recommendation”, he said. “The Northeastern carnival receives many European visitors”.
According to the entity’s bulletin, released this Friday afternoon, the end of the year festivities and revelry could generate crowds that would intensify the transmission of the virus and result in a new wave of Covid-19.
“There is a very high risk with the appearance of Ômicron of holding festivities with crowds, with people relaxed in relation to social distance. Carnival causes crowds. Our warning is in this direction, we do not want a third wave in Brazil”, declared Rezende.
TO CNN, the coordinator of the committee also said that the cases and deaths arising from Covid-19 in recent weeks in the Northeast are stable, but have not dropped “completely”. This, according to him, is another reason for warning.
“In October 2020, the pandemic seemed to be going away, cases falling and deaths falling, we had elections with crowds, end of the year, and that caused a second wave, much stronger. We are now in a situation reminiscent of last year. It looks like the second wave is going away, but we’re seeing that in the last few weeks the cases and deaths are stable, they haven’t completely dropped.”
Recommendations on New Year’s Parties
The document released this Friday (3) cites the current global and national picture of the pandemic and “existing future uncertainties” and also recommends intensifying vaccination through the active search for people who have not completed the vaccination schedule, expanding the pace of immunization through strategies such as sound car and application of doses in schools and maintaining the mandatory use of face masks.
The committee also defends collective protection measures such as the requirement of a vaccine passport for entry into cinemas, theaters, football stadiums and others.
“These new variants may not only be more transmissible and more pathogenic, but also evade the immunity produced by vaccines. It is not by chance that the recent identification of a new variant in South Africa, called Ômicron, is generating such tension and expectations among politicians, managers and specialists”, highlighted the bulletin.
Reference: CNN Brasil
