New York City will ring the bell of 2022 in Times Square as scheduled, despite the record number of COVID-19 infections in the city and across the country, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
“We want to show that we are moving forward and we want to show the world that New York City is struggling to get ahead,” said de Blasio, whose last day in office is Friday, on NBC’s “Today” show.
After banning revelers from Times Square a year ago due to the pandemic, city officials previously announced plans for a smaller New Year’s Eve party with fewer people and an obligation to get vaccinated.
While cities like Atlanta have canceled New Years celebrations, de Blasio said New York City’s high COVID-19 vaccination rate makes it possible to welcome masked and socially estranged crowds to watch the ball drop in. Times Square. “We have to send a message to the world. New York City is open,” he said.
Thanks to the highly contagious omicron variant that was first identified as a worrying variant last month, new cases of COVID-19 in the United States have soared to the highest levels on record, averaging more than 265,000 a day. .
New York City on Tuesday recorded a record number of new confirmed cases, more than 39,590, according to New York state figures.
De Blasio said the answer is to “double vaccination,” noting that 91% of New York adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The city’s next mayor, Eric Adams, will be sworn in in Times Square early Saturday. Adams, a Democrat like de Blasio, was scheduled to hold a press conference later Thursday to lay out his plan against the pandemic.
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