The Hanoi administration has decided to cancel a fireworks show meant to ring in the 2022 Lunar New Year (Tet), explaining that the coronavirus is still raging in the capital city.

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Chu Ngoc Anh announced the cancelation during a teleconference with local districts on Wednesday morning, stating that the decision is part of the city’s pandemic prevention and control measures.

The administration recently sought the central government’s opinions on the organization of the pyrotechnic display on Lunar New Year’s Eve.

However, the central government answered that the capital city should not hold such an event, chairman Anh said.

In early January, the Hanoi People’s Committee announced a plan to organize a high-range pyrotechnic display for 15 minutes at Thong Nhat Park to celebrate the traditional Tet holiday, which is around late January and early February.

It was expected to last from 0:00 to 0:15 on February 1, the first day of the forthcoming lunar year.

The event would be funded by the private sector, according to the scheme.

Local authorities previously scrapped fireworks displays and countdown events intended to usher in the 2022 New Year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The celebration was done virtually instead.

Last year, Hanoi decided to organize the Lunar New Year fireworks display at only one venue due to the coronavirus.

The capital organized pyrotechnic displays across its 30 districts and towns in previous years.

In a recent directive, the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat requested localities take the actual situation of local COVID-19 outbreaks into consideration before organizing pyrotechnic displays, which tend to draw large gatherings.

The COVID-19 outbreaks remain unpredictable in Hanoi as around 2,800 to 3,000 new cases have been detected daily over the past week.

The capital city has logged more than 94,300 infections since the fourth wave of the pandemic hit Vietnam on April 27, 2021.

Above 6.5 million out of eight million people in Hanoi have received two vaccine doses, according to the national COVID-19 vaccination portal.

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