Brazil’s Sao Paulo pushes back Carnival as coronavirus cases keep soaring

Sao Paulo, the biggest city in South America, postponed its 2021 Carnival celebrations on the same day that Formula One scrapped its next planned race. Carnival, a traditional multi-day holiday known for its colourful parades and raucous revelry, takes places in hundreds of cities throughout Latin America’s largest nation.

Sao Paulo, the biggest city in South America, postponed its 2021 Carnival celebrations on the same day that Formula One scrapped its next planned race here, underlying the enduring effects policymakers expect the coronavirus pandemic to have on Brazil.

Carnival, a traditional multi-day holiday known for its colourful parades and raucous revelry, takes places in hundreds of cities throughout Latin America’s largest nation.

While the celebrations, originally scheduled for February, are more traditionally associated with Rio de Janeiro and cities in the country’s northeast, Sao Paulo’s Carnival has grown significantly in recent years.

In a Friday news conference, Sao Paulo Mayor Bruno Covas said possible revised dates included late May and July. June was unlikely, he said, as the separate festival of Sao Joao do Nordeste is scheduled for that month.

Earlier in the day, Formula One officials scrapped the November 2020 race in Sao Paulo, along with the body’s three other stops in the Americas, citing the coronavirus pandemic.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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