Next year's Boston Marathon gets postponed 'at least' until fall of 2021 after this year's race was cancelled, 'costing the local economy $211million'
Next year's Boston Marathon is already being postponed after the 2020 race was cancelled outright due to the ongoing pandemic, and organizers are not sure when the celebrated event will take place again.
The Boston Athletic Association said Wednesday that it won't hold the race as scheduled in April because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizers say it will be put off 'at least until the fall of 2021.'
This year's marathon was initially postponed until the fall and later canceled outright. It was to be the 124th edition of the world's oldest and most prestigious annual 26.2-mile race.
In this April 17, 2017, runners in the 121st Boston Marathon head down the stretch to the finish
Women's winner Worknesh Degefa of Ethiopia crosses the finish line during the 123rd running of the Boston Marathon on the sixth anniversary of the 2013 Boston marathon bombings in Boston, Massachusetts on April 15th, 2019
The B.A.A. says it is working with government officials and others involved in the race to see if a fall 2021 date is feasible. Organizers say they are hoping to announce a date for an in-person race before the end of this year.
Until March, not even the Great Depression or ferocious storms had interrupted the 124-year-old race, a bucket list quest for runners worldwide.
'We want to make sure that we keep people safe,' Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said at a news conference in March when the race was initially postponed.
Walsh had said the marathon pumps $211 million a year into the city's economy - not counting the millions more that runners raise for charities.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has maintained that safety will be the top priority
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported more than 1,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, as the 7-day rolling average of the positivity rate and daily new cases in the state continued to rise.
The state reported 1,025 new confirmed cases and seven deaths Tuesday.
The 7-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Massachusetts has now risen over the past two weeks from 0.95 percent on October 12 to more than 1.5 percent on Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in Massachusetts has also risen over the past two weeks from more than 600 on October 12 to more than 1,041 on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins.
The number of people in the state's hospitals with the disease rose to 567, up from 550 the previous day. The number of patients in intensive care rose to 109 from 105.
n this Monday, April 15, 2019, file photo, Lawrence Cherono, of Kenya, breaks the tape to win the 123rd Boston Marathon in front of Lelisa Desisa, of Ethiopia, right, in Boston