Rio de Janeiro will hold its famed New Year's Eve party after all, Mayor Eduardo Paes announced, five days after cancelling the celebration over concerns about Covid-19.
The iconic Brazilian beach city will go ahead with its annual fireworks display, though the huge concert that usually follows remains canceled, Mr Paes told a news conference. "The city is open.
The city is going to celebrate," he said. "Rio de Janeiro has low (Covid-19) infection rates, low numbers of hospitalisations, and thanks to God and the vaccine, a very low number of deaths.
That enables us to hold this event in complete safety." The mayor had tweeted on Saturday that Rio had to cancel the festivities "with sadness," amid concerns over the new Omicron variant.