RIO DE JANEIRO, March 19 — Rio de Janeiro’s mayor said today he was closing the Brazilian city’s famed beaches for the weekend and banning bus arrivals in a bid to contain a surge of Covid-19.

Mayor Eduardo Paes said the situation in the iconic beach city was "very critical,” and urged residents to stay home to slow the spread of the virus.

He warned that more restrictive measures could be announced Monday, after he meets with the expert committee advising him on the pandemic.

"I am calling on all ‘Cariocas’” — the nickname for Rio residents — "this is the moment to stay home,” Paes told a news conference.

The city of 6.7 million people had already ordered businesses to close at 9pm starting March 5.

Rio currently has a 95-per cent occupancy rate in intensive care units at public hospitals.

Like much of the country, it is struggling to deal with a new wave of Covid-19 cases that experts say is driven partly by the emergence of a new, more contagious strain of the virus known as "P1” or the Brazil variant.

Brazil’s Covid-19 death toll has increased sharply in recent weeks, to nearly 290,000, second only to that of the United States.

Rio also closed its beaches a year ago during the first wave of Covid-19, with limited results.

Legendary beaches such as Copacabana and Ipanema were often jam-packed on sunny days, with few police around to enforce the closure.

The city had fully reopened its beaches again in November, just before the southern hemisphere summer. — AFP