New York Metropolis will ring in 2022 in Occasions Sq. as deliberate regardless of report numbers of COVID-19 infections within the metropolis and across the nation, Mayor Invoice de Blasio stated Thursday.
“We wish to present that we’re transferring ahead, and we wish to present the world that New York Metropolis is preventing our method by means of this,” de Blasio, whose final day in workplace is Friday, stated on NBC’s Immediately present.
After banning revellers from Occasions Sq. a yr in the past due to the pandemic, metropolis officers beforehand introduced plans for a scaled-back New 12 months’s bash with smaller crowds and vaccinations required.
Whereas cities equivalent to Atlanta have cancelled New 12 months’s Eve celebrations, de Blasio stated New York Metropolis’s excessive COVID-19 vaccination price makes it possible to welcome masked, socially distanced crowds to look at the ball drop in Occasions Sq..
“We have got to ship a message to the world. New York Metropolis is open,” he stated.
Due to the extremely contagious Omicron variant that was first recognized as a variant of concern final month, new COVID-19 instances within the U.S. have soared to their highest ranges on report at greater than 265,000 per day on common. New York Metropolis reported a report variety of new, confirmed instances — greater than 39,590 — on Tuesday, in line with New York state figures.
De Blasio stated the reply is to “double down on vaccinations” and famous that 91 per cent of New York Metropolis adults have obtained at the least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.
The town’s subsequent mayor, Eric Adams, will take the oath of workplace in Occasions Sq. early Saturday. Adams, a Democrat like de Blasio, deliberate a information convention later Thursday to stipulate his pandemic plan.