Nobel Prize postponed due to pandemic, again

By Burak Dag

STOCKHOLM (AA) - Nobel Prize winners will receive medals and diplomas in their home countries this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Nobel Foundation said Thursday.

"I think everybody would like the COVID-19 pandemic to be over, but we are not there yet," Vidar Helgesen, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation said in a statement. "Uncertainty about the course of the pandemic and international travel possibilities is the reason why the 2021 laureates will receive their medals and diplomas in their home countries."

The Nobel Prize was also postponed last year due to the pandemic.

The foundation said there is still a possibility that the peace prize might be awarded in Norway but the Norwegian Nobel Committee will make a final decision next month.

Winners in physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace will be announced between Oct. 4-11.

Besides the banquet, digital Nobel Prize lectures, seminars, concerts will be held in Oslo and Stockholm.

Before the pandemic, the Nobel Prize was last postponed in 1956 to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary. The ceremony was not held during the world wars.