For the second year in a row, the pandemic has cast a shadow over the festivities that usually attract large crowds to the famous intersection in midtown Manhattan.
It organizes entertainment activities that last for hours until a giant crystal ball is dropped at exactly midnight, with the beginning of the new year, which is watched by millions in the world on television screens.
To maintain social distancing, this year the city will allow about a third of the usual number of revelers to enter the dozens of areas designated to follow the celebration surrounded by barriers.
Attendees will have to show proof that they have received a full vaccination and put masks.
“The celebration, which usually hosts about 58,000 people in the viewing areas, will this year host about 15,000,” de Blasio said in a statement Thursday.
In addition, people will be allowed to enter starting around 3 pm local time, which is later than previous years.
For decades, tens of thousands of people flock to the streets around the plaza on New Year’s Eve with a large number of tourists and stand for hours in cold weather, waiting to watch the glittering ball slide onto a pole atop a skyscraper in the last seconds of the year.
And Covid-19 infections in the United States have increased in the past few days due to the “Omicron” mutant, which was first discovered in November, and now accounts for approximately 73 percent of infections across the country, and 90 percent in some regions.
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