Omicron curtails New Year's Eve festivities in New York, Italy, Spain

NEW YORK • New York City will scale back the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration as Omicron spreads, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced, the same day New York state reported its highest daily Covid-19 case total ever.

The Mayor added that officials were still monitoring the situation and could take additional precautions in the coming days, if needed.

As of now, attendees will be required to show proof of full vaccination and wear masks. Fewer people - 15,000, instead of the usual 58,000 - will be allowed in designated viewing areas, to make safe distancing possible. Visitors will not be allowed in until about 3pm, later than in past years.

The number of cases in the city reported over the past week is the highest since the start of the pandemic, although testing was severely limited in its early days.

Nearly 39,000 new cases were reported statewide on Thursday, about 10,000 more than Wednesday, with nearly 23,000 of them in New York City. More than 60 per cent of cases reported by New York state in the past two weeks were of the Omicron variant, according to the governor's office.

The city's seven-day average test positivity rate was 11 per cent as at Tuesday, and there were hours-long waits for tests at many sites around the city.

At an unrelated event, Mr de Blasio insisted that the rise in virus cases would subside soon and that shutdowns were not necessary. He said the city's strategy of incentivising vaccines and boosters and implementing strict vaccine mandates would suffice.

"It's going to be a tough few weeks, but it will only be a few weeks," he said, adding, "we are not falling back. We're going to fight our way through this."

Health experts were divided about the New Year's Eve decision. Dr Denis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at the CUNY School of Public Health, said he did not think it was a good idea to hold the event.

"We're in the middle of a pandemic with a big surge of a new variant whose risk we're still really understanding, and I don't think we want to let it amplify," he said.

He added that he was concerned that people visiting New York from other states and countries could pick up the variant and bring it home with them. "Since New York is a global city and connected to everywhere, we have to be thinking about those places too," he said.

But Dr Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said he was "really pleased" the Mayor chose not to cancel, noting the vaccine mandate and that the virus generally does not transmit efficiently outdoors.

"The whole country watches this, so I think psychologically it's very important for the country to have a sense that we can do these things again and that we can do them safely," Dr Jha said.

The ball drop will take place on Mr de Blasio's last day in office, marking the end of his eight-year tenure. Mayor-elect Eric Adams said Mr de Blasio "made the right move to take precautionary measures as we learn to live with Covid".

Mr Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, said viewing pens will be filled to only about 25 per cent capacity.

In Italy, New Year's celebrations will effectively be forbidden, with mass gatherings, parties and events banned until the end of next month, even those outdoors. Nightclubs and similar venues will also remain closed until Jan 31.

Italy reintroduced the mandatory wearing of face masks in outdoor spaces on Thursday, when new Covid-19 cases hit a record 44,595, an increase of more than 70 per cent in just a week.

In Spain, night curfews in the north-eastern region of Catalonia will put to rest any plans for late celebrations.

Catalonia, which surrounds the city of Barcelona, will ban residents from leaving their homes between 1am and 6am. Southern Murcia has also told non-essential businesses to shut at 1am, severely curtailing revelry in a country where bars and restaurants routinely stay open until the small hours.

Omicron sent daily cases in Spain soaring to a record of more than 72,900 on Thursday.

NYTIMES, REUTERS