RIO DE JANEIRO, March 19 — Rio de Janeiro’s mayor said today he was closing the Brazilian city’s famed beaches for the weekend and banning bus arrivals in a bid to contain a surge of Covid-19. Mayor Eduardo Paes said the situation in the iconic beach city was “very critical,” and urged...
People enjoy Copacabana beach, amid the outbreak of Covid-19, in Rio de Janeiro August 9, 2020. — Reuters picRIO DE JANEIRO, March 19 — Rio de Janeiro’s mayor said today he was closing the Brazilian city’s famed beaches for the weekend and banning bus arrivals in a bid to contain a surge of Covid-19.
He warned that more restrictive measures could be announced Monday, after he meets with the expert committee advising him on the pandemic. Like much of the country, it is struggling to deal with a new wave of Covid-19 cases that experts say is driven partly by the emergence of a new, more contagious strain of the virus known as “P1” or the Brazil variant.