Thousands of Tourists Attended New Year’s Eve in Vallarta Víctor Chavez - El Occidental
go to original January 3, 2022

In spite of the Health Department's warning to cancel New Year's celebrations throughout Jalisco, the municipality of Puerto Vallarta celebrated with 10 minutes of fireworks and the presence of eight thousand tourists.

On Friday, December 31, the government of Jalisco, through a communique, announced that the Health Department had determined the cancellation of public events to celebrate the arrival of 2022 in the 125 municipalities of the state.

Nevertheless, Puerto Vallarta and Chapala were preparing New Year's Eve festivities and even fireworks.

The Government of Jalisco issued already in the afternoon a communique making known that both municipalities did not have the authorization nor the endorsement of the Health Bureau and therefore both events were cancelled.



It was reiterated that the two celebrations, consisting of video mapping, musicals and pyrotechnics, did not comply with the provisions and protocols to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

"This collegiate body in charge of the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in Jalisco, did not receive in due time and form the request of the municipalities to hold such events, so that given the spike in cases and the presence of the Omicron variant in the world, the head of the Ministry of Health of Jalisco, Fernando Petersen Aranguren, the highest health authority in Jalisco, decided to cancel the celebrations," the official statement said.

It was said that the decision was not for those two municipalities but for the 125 municipalities of Jalisco, "since being mass events, the chains of contagion of the disease are favored".

They insisted that the decision was made based on the General Health Law of the State of Jalisco and on the agreements DIELAG ACU 091/2021 published in the Official Newspaper last November 11, as well as the provisions of the Governor's Agreement through which general guidelines are issued for the attention to the requests for the realization of events of more than 300 people, restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic published in March 2021, the cancellation of the events is ordered, since they do not have the approval of the protocols indicated by the specialists.

However, in the case of Puerto Vallarta - where last October Professor Luis Alberto Michel Rodriguez of Morena took office as municipal president - it was said that the official notice was received only hours before the celebration.

He gave the event as cancelled and announced it through a video on his official Facebook page of the Government of Puerto Vallarta with a large sign that reads "Cancelled by the State Government".

The communique released at 11 o'clock at night read "By direct request of the State Governor, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, the activities scheduled for this December 31 at the Malecon are cancelled, even though the corresponding permits for their celebration were in place".

He adds that "for this reason and as a measure of responsibility towards the health care of the people of Vallarta and those who visit us, the municipal president Luis Alberto Michel Rodriguez, took into account the request made by the state government and the health board, turning the necessary indications to comply with that purpose".

However, some activities (video mapping and musical concerts) were half suspended, since at midnight the fireworks were activated for ten minutes and even broadcast nationally on TV Azteca.

The municipal government confirmed the presence of more than 8 thousand people at the Malecon and said that it maintained the sanitation filters, although it could be noticed that -as shown in videos and photographs- most of the attendees were not wearing mouth covers.

See the original at El Occidental

This article was translated from Spanish using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.