The Nobel Committee canceled face-to-face awarding of Nobel prize winners in the traditional five categories. The reason for this is the epidemiological situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
For the same reason, there will be no Grand Banquet at the Stockholm city hall, reports “Russian Newspaper” with reference to the Nobel Foundation.
The awards in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and Economics will still be presented online on December 10. The winners will receive medals and diplomas not from the hands of the king of Sweden at the Stockholm Philharmonic, but in their countries at the Swedish embassies or in organizations where they work. The traditional ceremony will be replaced by a TV broadcast with inclusions from different countries.
The winners will be announced from October 5 to 12.
The Nobel peace prize ceremony will still take place. Despite the pandemic, it will be held according to tradition in the Norwegian capital, but this time in a chamber: not in the local town hall, as usual, but in the walls of the University of Oslo.
Recall that the first prizes under the will of Alfred Nobel were awarded in 1901. During the Second world war, some of them were not awarded at all, and some were transferred. In 1944, the ceremony was not held at all, the winners of that year were awarded in 1945.
Sweden has the highest death rate from coronavirus among the Scandinavian countries. In total, since the beginning of the pandemic in Sweden, the coronavirus has claimed 5,878 lives.
