OTTAWA -- Ottawa’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade has been cancelled amid growing concerns about COVID-19.

The 38th annual parade had been scheduled for Saturday.

“We didn’t think it was wise, in our case, to put a bunch of people together at the parade,” Sean Kealey, president of the Irish Society of the National Capital Region, told CTV News at Noon.

The parade, hosted by the Irish Society and Beau’s Brewery, was supposed to start at city hall and head down Laurier Avenue and Bank Street to Lansdowne Park.

A post-parade party at the Aberdeen Pavilion, which was to feature fiddler Ashley MacIsaac as a headliner, has also been cancelled.

Other Irish week festivities scheduled for this week are all postponed or cancelled, Kealey said.

Toronto’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which was scheduled for Sunday, has also been cancelled.

Ottawa Public Health confirmed a second case of coronavirus in the capital on Thursday. Ontario has 17 new cases, bringing the provincial total to 59.