FOR a second-straight year, Corporate Area streets will be bare of colourful sights and sounds associated with carnival’s road march because of COVID-19. It was slated for April 11.

The cancellation came as no surprise to Michael Ammar Jr and Kamal Bankay — directors of Bacchanal Jamaica and Xodus Jamaica Carnival, respectively.

“It’s not our choice, but I think it’s a choice we all support. The lockdown that’s in place now goes all the way until the [April] 12th. That would have already eliminated the first week of carnival, which is the Easter weekend,” Ammar Jr, co-director of Bacchanal Jamaica, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

“And with the health situation in the country, it would be crazy for anybody to think we could do it now. We stand ready to stage carnival as soon as the health situation warrants a return to normality,” he continued.

Bankay said Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s revised restrictions on Sunday gave him his cue.

“There are reports every day about hospital capacity and because of that, any activity, whether it’s carnival or even going to your office, is not safe… Obviously, the prime minister announced various measures which curtails movements in April and a complete restriction of movements for everybody on weekends. One of those weekends would have been the carnival weekend, so there is no possible way we could have executed in this iteration,” he told the Observer.

Yesterday, Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett said due to challenges posed by COVID-19, organisers of carnival will forego the annual road march and related activities for April, until further notice.

According to Bartlett, it is in the best interest of the Jamaican people and will aid the Government’s fight to preserve lives and livelihoods.

“We are mindful of the significant economic loss this will have on our country, as this event generates billions annually, with many small and medium-sized enterprises benefiting from the celebrations. However, despite the ongoing roll-out of vaccines, the Government of Jamaica must continue to put strong measures in place to prevent unnecessary exposure of our people and visitors to the deadly disease,” said Bartlett.

On Sunday, Holness announced restrictions expected to last for the next three weeks in a bid to stem the current spike in COVID-19 figures.

“It is not the intention of the Government to want to deprive people of the pursuit of their happiness. But it can’t be that the entire society collapses because people pursue selfishly,” said Holness.

As of yesterday, Jamaica registered close to 37,000 positive cases, and more than 500 deaths.