The escalation of covid-19 cases in Florida, which broke its daily record on Saturday by registering 32,850 new infections, has complicated the celebration of the Christmas holidays with the cancellation of flights, scheduled shows and scheduled exhibitions.
The omicron variant is causing a wave of cancellations and complications in this final stretch of the Christmas period, with long queues of vehicles in rapid test centers throughout the state that have forced the authorities to close access, at certain times, in order to accommodate waiting lines.
The Miami International Airport (MIA) counted 45 canceled flights last weekend and, “so far this day, today, Monday, we have 17 scheduled cancellations due to the shortage of cabin crew,” Indira Almeida told EFE. Portillo, director of the MIA communications department.
Among the cultural events that have been affected by covid-19 is a classic that cannot be missed every Christmas, the Miami Ballet’s “The Nutcracker” show at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.
“Due to the outbreak of covid-19, we have made the difficult decision to cancel this afternoon’s performance of George Balanchine’s ‘Nutcracker’ at the Arsht Center,” Miami City Ballet said on social media this Sunday, adding that “The health and safety of the dancers, musicians, the team and the public are of the utmost importance” for the organization.
It is unknown if any of the members of the corps de ballet or the production and direction team of the show have contracted the virus.
Added to this cancellation was the presentation of the exhibition “Beyond Monet: the immersive experience”, a sample of more than 400 objects dedicated to the work of the French impressionist artist in which “avant-garde technology is combined with pieces designed to perfection”.
The opening of the exhibition to the public was scheduled for next January 7 at the Ice Palace Studios in Miami, but was postponed “until further notice”, according to the organizers.
Another cancellation, “due to the protocols against the pandemic”, is that of a very followed sporting event in Miami, the celebration of the American football Sun Bowl on December 31 between the Miami Hurricanes of the University of Miami (UM) and the Washington State team.
While the image of long queues of cars in the rapid test centers is the tonic of these holidays in Florida, the southern state broke its own record of daily cases this Saturday for the second day in a row by adding 32,850 new infections, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States.
According to the CDC, the omicron variant has already become the predominant one in the United States, since between December 12 and 18 it accounted for 73.2% of new cases.
The United States continues to be one of the countries hardest hit by the covid-19 pandemic with more than 816,000 deaths and 52.3 million infections since March 2020, as indicated by the Johns Hopkins University count.
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