With COVID cases surging, Belleville’s Labor Day parade is canceled again
For the second year in a row, the Labor Day parade and picnic in Belleville is being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The number of coronavirus patients in metro-east hospitals has skyrocketed since June and public health officials have blamed the increases on the delta variant and the low number of vaccinations.
“We decided to go ahead and call it for everyone’s safety,” said Scot Luchtefeld, president of the Southwestern Illinois Central Labor Council. He had consulted with other union leaders before making the decision.
The parade was scheduled for Sept. 6, with much of the route on Illinois Street, and the picnic was planned to be at Hough Park until 4 p.m. that day. Also, the council’s annual awards dinner on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend has been postponed.
In the third week of June, the seven-day rolling average of patients in metro-east hospitals was at 12. In the latest statistics available from the Illinois Department of Public Health, that number now stands at 106.
“It’s a shame,” Luchtefeld said Thursday.
He was upset that many area residents have not gotten the free coronavirus vaccination.
“They’re not believing the science, which is pretty sad,” he said.
The St. Louis Labor Council also has announced that it has canceled the Labor Day parade that had been scheduled for downtown St. Louis on Sept. 6, according to a report from KSDK-Channel 5.
Belleville organizers of several spring and summer festivals that were canceled in 2020 and postponed earlier this year have move their events to this fall, including Art on the Square.
Leaders of Art on the Square are monitoring the COVID situation and the show is scheduled for Oct. 22-24.
Tom Barnett, president of the Art on the Square board of directors, noted that the show is still over two months away.
“We’ve got a little time,” he said.
