Mayor: Times Square show will go on despite virus surge

NEW YORK (AP) » New York City will ring in 2022 in Times Square as planned despite record numbers of COVID-19 infections in the city, the state and around the nation, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

“We want to show that we’re moving forward, and we want to show the world that New York City is fighting our way through this,” de Blasio, whose last day in office is Friday, said 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 scaled-back New Year’s bash with smaller crowds and vaccinations required.

While cities such as Atlanta have canceled New Year’s Eve celebrations, de Blasio said New York City’s high COVID-19 vaccination rate makes it feasible to welcome masked, socially distanced crowds to watch the ball drop in Times Square.

“We’ve got 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 variant of concern last month, new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have soared to their highest levels on record at over 265,000 per day on average. New York City reported a record number of new, confirmed cases — almost 44,000 — on Wednesday, according to New York state figures.

Statewide, New York on Wednesday reported more than 74,000 people tested positive for COVID-19, the second day in a row that the state set a record of new, confirmed cases. More than 1,600 people were newly hospitalized statewide, pushing the number of COVID-19 hospitals around the state to more than 7,300. New York also reported 76 additional deaths.