The Arnold Classic South America announces new date in October.
The Arnold South America announced on Instagram this morning that the festival’s new date will be October 2nd, 3rd and 4th. This comes after the previous announcement of postponing the event due to fears about the spread of coronavirus. You can check out the announcement in full below, although it is in Portuguese.
At this point, with the wave of cancellations that have hit the bodybuilding and strength fitness worlds, it’s a blessing that there’s even an official date for the Arnold South America to be postponed to. A lot of festivals and expos around the country are being postponed indefinitely with no slated return date.
Officials said the decision to postpone was made out of “respect and responsibility” to sponsors who voiced their concern about the health and safety of the event. Governments everywhere are taking major steps to curb the epidemic, which includes the recommendation of “social distancing” — an edict that’s not exactly friendly to mass gatherings.
A rough translation of the statement from Ana Paula Leal, the CEO of the Arnold Classic South America, said she was determined “to maintain the commitment Arnold Schwarzenegger had to bringing the sport into every home,” while balancing that against her obligation to “put public health first.” Clearly, the officials of the Arnold Classic South America did not make this decision lightly, but they decided the disappointment of fans was worth it if it meant saving lives.
While around 80% of people who contract the coronavirus do not require hospitalization, social distancing is recommended in order to “flatten the curve” of cases as the new disease rages. Since there is currently no treatment, older people and immunocompromised people are at serious risk of infection.
In order to make sure the spread of people infected happens slowly, rather than spiking and overwhelming the world’s hospital capacity, everyone should do their part to protect themselves from being a carrier and inadvertently contributing to this crisis. Even if you don’t feel sick, you should remember that you could potentially be a carrier for the disease and spread it to other people. This is especially important for people who live in dense, urban areas — the amount of social links between you and someone’s elderly grandma is not as many as you think.
The news comes as countries around the world are starting to feel the heat of the crisis, though many epidemiologists predict the peak amount of infections is still to come in many North and South American countries. Europe is officially at the epicenter of the outbreak, as cases have been on the decline in China for some time and Italy experienced a record-breaking 627 deaths from coronavirus in one day. In order to avoid that catastrophic outcome in other countries, everyone should do their part to follow health and safety recommendations and try to just stay indoors for the time being. It might be annoying, but trust me, not as annoying as the global economic meltdown that would result from the pressure cooker that is the US healthcare system exploding in our faces.
*All images and media courtesy of Instagram.
