Chicago's St. Patrick's Day Parade canceled over coronavirus concerns

According to the parades official

​, the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown Chicago is cancelled. This is the latest holiday celebration to be shuttered over coronavirus concerns, as the disease continues to spread across the United States.

St. Patrick's Day festivities bring thousands of people downtown every year, with the downtown parade and river dyeing. The river dyeing has also been canceled.

State officials have been urging people, particularly elderly residents, to avoid mass gatherings in the area and several other locations, including Boston and Dublin have canceled their events amid an outbreak.

While there are still plenty of other St. Patrick's Day celebrations, including Rockford you can attend, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker noted that decisions, as of now, will be made on a local level.

"The CDC is talking about avoid mass gatherings. They aren’t giving a number to what is a mass gathering and I think that’s not helpful, frankly, and in a number of ways the federal government has not been helpful, but we are in conversations about what to do," Pritzker said. "Chicago is not the only place that has large gatherings around St. Patrick’s Day."