The year 2022 began as a year full of expectations, new opportunities, and above all, the realization of major events still being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

Recently, some events to be canceled due to the high number of infections are the Grammy Awards, the Sundance Film Festival, the Armani fashion shows in Italy and Paris, Carlos Vives' tour in the United States, some parades of the Rio carnival, the resume of in-person schools and hundreds of flights around the world. 

The 64th Grammy Awards gala, scheduled for Jan. 31 in Los Angeles, California, was suspended due to the increase in cases of COVID-19 and will be rescheduled for a new, yet-to-be-determined date.

 

In a joint statement, the Recording Academy and CBS explained that the decision was made after "careful consideration" and discussion with health officials.

The organizers of the Sundance Independent Film Festival announced Thursday, Jan. 6 that the festival will be held in a completely virtual format in view of Omicron's impact.

 

The organizers detailed in a statement that all the events they had planned to hold this year in person in Utah, will be online.

The authorities of Rio de Janeiro decided to suspend the street carnival at the end of February due to the spread of the contagious variant of coronavirus.

 

In Brazil, cases shot up again due to the Christmas festivities, where more than 18,000 new cases were recorded in 24 hours, the worst daily figure since Oct. 5.

 

The traditional holiday was planned to be celebrated from Feb. 25 to March 1.

On Thursday, Jan. 6, LATAM Airlines announced that, due to the increase of reported cases of the Omicron variant, seven flights scheduled for the day were canceled, which impacts 3.6% of the operation.

 

Other countries such as Hong Kong announced a ban — from Wednesday, Jan. 5 — on the arrival of passenger flights from eight countries, in an attempt to curb the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus pandemic.

 

The ban affects flights from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines.

Due to the increase of coronavirus cases in Europe, Giorgio Armani has just announced that it is canceling its shows scheduled for January at Milan Men's Fashion Week and Paris Haute Couture week.