Dr Harry Harinath, the chairman of the Parramasala board, confirmed about 30 minutes ago that Parramasala (13th to 15th March 2020, Parramatta) has been postponed. The board met around 4.30pm today and discussed the prevalent Coronavirus situation in Sydney.

Keeping the public health implications in view, and cancellations from many participating cultural groups, the board took this difficult but necessary decision.

Coronavirus infection is increasing exponentially.

As of 12/3/29, globally there are 129,158 people with infection and 4,749 deaths. In Australia, 156 people have been infected. Most of them are in Sydney.

It’s preferable to stay away from the crowds. Many events have been canceled throughout the world. The prudent and smart thing to do right now is to follow “social distancing” to avoid getting infected and avoid infecting others. Social distancing has many parameters and includes avoiding body contacts with others (hugging and shaking hands) and keeping a distance of at least 3 feet from others to avoid receiving and sending droplets from nose and mouth. It must be noted that many infected and infectious people have no symptoms and do not know that they are infected.

I praise the Parramasala board to take this difficult but correct decision.

“Following significant feedback from communities and growing concerns over COVID-19, the Parramasala Board has made the difficult decision to postpone the 2020 Parramasala Festival. The safety and wellbeing of our communities is of the highest importance to the board, stakeholders and event managers of Parramasala.”-Parramasala Board.