Rio de Janeiro postpones Carnival festivities until 2022

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro announced on Wednesday that all Carnival festivities would be canceled this year as Brazil struggles with high rates of new virus cases and a lagging vaccination campaign.

Carnival festivities, which normally take place in February, were postponed in the fall, and officials had hoped that the city could hold street parades and parties in July instead. But Mayor Eduardo Paes wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that no such celebrations would be possible in 2021.

Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll stands at more than 210,000, second only to the United States, and the state of Rio de Janeiro has the highest mortality rate in the country. New cases have jumped sharply in recent weeks; the country has recorded an average of 50,000 cases a day over the last week.