Oktoberfest, the world’s biggest folk festival which draws millions of visitors from around the world each year, has been cancelled.
The major cultural event in Bavaria, Germany, was scheduled to run from Saturday 19 September to Sunday 4 October, but was called off by officials on Tuesday due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Germany, which allowed smaller shops to open again yesterday, had already banned major events up to the end of August.
Parts of Europe are tentatively opening up their economies again, amid more hopeful signs of falling numbers of COVID-19 cases. Italy, Europe’s worst affected country with more than 24,000 dead, recorded fewer current cases for the first time on Monday.
Looking at the global outlook, the World Health Organization chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did warn the “worst is yet ahead of us” in the outbreak.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has announced he will temporarily suspend immigration to the US due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The US president wrote on Twitter he will sign an executive order due to the “attack by the invisible enemy”, and to protect jobs.
He didn’t give details and it was not immediately clear how his decision would work in practice, as the country continues to face divisions over how to handle the coronavirus outbreak that has so far left more than 42,000 people dead in the US.
