Ryde council postpones Lunar New Year event due to coronavirus concerns
Ryde Council has decided to postpone Lunar New Year celebrations which were due to start February 8, amid “health concerns” over a coronavirus outbreak.
Northern District Times
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A Sydney council has postponed next week’s Lunar New Year celebrations amid “health concerns” over a coronavirus outbreak.
Ryde Council, along with its Lunar New Year subcommittee, said the Chinese Lunar New Year event which was scheduled to take place in Eastwood on Saturday February 8 will be postponed to a future date.
The decision was made at the Lunar New Year subcommittee meeting headed by City of Ryde deputy mayor Simon Zhou on Tuesday morning.
Cr Zhou said: “This morning the committee got together on very short notice and we made the decision to postpone the event.
“This might be a surprise for everyone but as a chair I feel proud that we can take this responsible care of our community...considering current concerns about the disease.
“I think we will prefer to stay healthy, stay safe, and still celebrate in a much more conservative way,” he said.
When asked whether “conservative ways” referred to people celebrated in the home rather than in a communal setting he said he was taking advice from the federal minister to avoid “community gathering” until the situation is cleared.
Clr Zhou who is also committee chairman of the Lunar New Year subcommittee stressed that the event is not cancelled but postponed.
Ryde Mayor Jerome Laxale said he supported the decision to postpone the event.
“It’s unfortunate what’s happened but I believe the committee made the right decision.” he said.
“The Eastwood Lunar New Year Festival is one of the most important events for the City of Ryde and has been running in Eastwood for more than 10 years as a way of celebrating our multicultural community,” Clr Laxale said.
“The City of Ryde has a responsibility to put on a great and well attended event for our city and our sponsors, however, given the concern within the community it is just not the right time to stage such an important event.”
Cr Trenton Brown agreed the decision was “responsible.”
“While it was a difficult decision it was well supported and an obvious one for the success of the event. It is a very special event for the people of Eastwood and surrounding districts and we want to maximise the turnout (for a future event),” he said.
The stall holders, sponsors, performers have all been notified and are yet to decide a future date.
When asked if postponing the event would incur a financial cost Cr Zhou said the figure was not yet confirmed.
“The fortunate thing this year is we haven’t spent big money in this event and preparation. “And we believe many of our suppliers and partners working in the event will be very supportive to minimise our costs spent,” Cr Zhou said.
Currently, there are five confirmed cases and six suspected cases in NSW. All confirmed cases are in isolation and are being treated at Westmead Hospital.
It comes after a 21-year-old University of NSW student was confirmed to be carrying the virus on Monday.
Coronavirus can affect both humans and animals with the latest outbreak coronavirus (2019-nCoV) originating from Wuhan in China’s Huben Province.
While it hasn’t been confirmed if the new version of the virus comes from an animal, the infection can spread from person-to-person transmission and can take up to 14 days for symptoms to show after a person has been infected, according to the Health Department.
Symptoms include a fever, cough, sore throat, nausea and difficulty breathing.
For more information the public can contact their local Public Health Unit on 1300 066 055 for advice or visit health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus.aspx