Outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio still refuses to cancel the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration on Friday, allowing a pared-down version of 15,000 people to cram into the Crossroads to the World to watch the ball drop despite record-setting infection numbers as the Omicron variant rages throughout the city and nation.
‘I don’t believe in shutdowns,’ he told the Today show on Thursday. ‘We have to fight our way through this.’ De Blasio’s statement is in sharp contrast to his actions taken during the pandemic, when New York City shut down for months in 2020.
His successor, Mayor-elect Eric Adams, also doubled down on the New Year’s celebration, announcing that he will hold his swearing-in ceremony during the festivities after canceling his in-person inauguration that was set for Saturday.
‘We must allow our city to function,’ Adams said during a Thursday morning press conference during which he announced his health plan for tackling the virus. ‘We can’t shut down again. We must follow the science.’
The Big Apple chalked a record 39,590 new cases on Wednesday, the largest one-day number since the pandemic began. Gov. Kathy Hochul also announced that New York state saw a record 67,000 daily cases on Wednesday – 20,000 more than the Christmas Eve record.
Many businesses and Broadway shows voluntarily shut down temporarily due to COVID outbreaks, and the virus has also wrecked havoc on municipal employees, with 30 percent of the FDNY’s EMS workers out sick.
The NYPD also cancelled time off for all uniformed officers because of staffing shortages due to COVID.
De Blasio said Thursday that 94% of the city’s public workforce is vaccinated. Adams said 72% of New Yorkers are fully vaccinated.
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The celebration is nearly here. New Year’s Eve revelers prepare for a pared-down celebration due to the surge in Omicron
“Shutdowns are not the answer. The answer is to get people vaccinated.”@NYCMayor Bill de Blasio joins us to discuss the scaled back New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square amid a surge in COVID-19 cases. pic.twitter.com/aMo82VEtxA
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 30, 2021
New York City’s incoming Mayor Eric Adams (right) and outgoing Bill de Blasio (left) are determined to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square
One in 50 Manhattan residents were infected with COVID in the past week
The NYPD has cancelled time off for all uniformed officers because of staffing shortages due to COVID
‘Effective Friday, Dec. 31 and Saturday, Jan. 1, all uniformed members regular days off are cancelled and they are to report to their respective commands for their assigned tour.’
The FDNY put out a public service announcement urging New Yorkers to only call 911 in case of a ‘real’ emergency.
‘If you are not severely ill, allow first responders to assist those most in need,’ fire officials said.
Nationally, there were more than 489,000 new cases reported on Wednesday – a world record. The seven-day average for hospitalizations crept up 11 percent and deaths actually decreased.
De Blasio had banned revelers from the Times Square last year because of COVID-19 infections.
‘In order to provide police coverage for New Year’s celebrations in Times Square and for precincts throughout the city, the NYPD has ordered all uniformed members of the service who would regularly be off to report for duty,’ NYPD spokesman Sgt. Edward Riley told DailyMail.com.
Incoming Mayor Adams had said he would hold is swearing-in under the ball to strike a theme of ‘excitement, renewal and hope for the future.’
‘These are the same themes that animated my campaign and will inform my mayoralty, as I prepare to lead the city out of this challenging period,’ he said.
Adams said that the city had been ‘caught off guard’ by the new wave of infections, but his new plan would get try to get ahead of the virus. He lauded de Blasio’s reaction to the pandemic
‘I commend the mayor and his team for what they did getting our city through a very turbulent time in our country’
Adams trotted out a plan on Thursday to boost testing and track infection rates with a color-coded system. He also said that he would emphasize vaccinations, especially in the city’s public school system.
The incoming mayor vowed a seamless transition when it comes to health care policy, including keeping Dr. Dave Choksi as the city health commissioner.
The new mayor will continue the private sector vaccine mandate, but Choksi promised that the city would ‘focus on compliance, not punishment,’ meaning officials will forego fines as long a business get their workers vaccinated.
De Blasio’s desire to have a large gathering in celebration of the New Year runs counter to advice from health officials.
White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci has called for Americans to have a ‘vaccinated, boosted, home-related’ New Year’s Eve and to avoid large parties with ‘hugging and kissing.’
‘If your plans are to go to a 40- to 50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year, I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that,’ the doctor said.
Dr Anthony Fauci called for New Year’s Eve celebrations to be canceled
Other big U.S. cities, such as Atlanta, have cancelled their public New Year’s Eve events.
The continued winter surge of COVID-19 could ‘threaten the critical infrastructure’ of the country, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said.
About 20 CityMD private urgent care centers were forced to close this week because they didn’t have enough people to run them, according to The New York Times.
De Blasio shrugged off the sick-out, saying city employees have been rebounding quickly.
‘What our first responder leadership is saying is look everyone is cycling in and out,’ the mayor told Today on Thursday.
‘We want everyone to be healthy, but what were seeing is very mild, thank god, after five days people are coming right back on. What I want everyone to understand is that this city is very strong, it’s functioning really, really well. We have 94% of our public workforce vaccinated.’
A new report from the Africa Health Research Institute has suggested that catching the Omicron variant could immunize people from the Delta strain.
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