Karol G among the artists who will celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square – Telemundo New York (47)

What you should know

• New Year’s Eve in Times Square won’t be the same triumphant emblem of pandemic recovery that the mayor hoped for when he announced a comeback in person weeks ago. Among the stars who head the traditional farewell event of the year is the Colombian Karol G. In addition, there will be KT Tunstall, the Scottish singer-songwriter LL Cool J, Chlöe and Journey.
• The day-over-day increases in COVID-19 cases fueled by the Omicron variant have forced some changes to the plan. Other measures could be implemented.
• So far, New York City will allow fully vaccinated people to attend, but the audience will be nearly four times smaller than it usually is. Masks will be required for all and proof of vaccination and photo identification.

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The New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square is just a few days away and the main acts will now sound in 2022, and bid farewell to 2021, in the context of an emerging COVID-19 variant, Ómicron, which has already limited size. out of the crowd and has implemented new protocols.

Last week, the New York City announced modified plans for its celebration in Times Square where the number of vaccinated people who can celebrate and with the use of masks will now be limited. Capacity will be limited to about 15,000 people, almost four times fewer than the crowd before the pandemic.

Visitors will not be allowed in until 3:00 pm on New Years Eve, which is much later than previous years. Proof of complete vaccination, meaning the last dose of the regimen was at least 14 days before New Year’s Eve, with a valid photo ID will still be required, as previously announced by the mayor.

Attendees of children over 5 years old will be allowed and they must also present proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter the event. Minors who do not yet meet the vaccination criteria can attend the Times Square party, but must be accompanied by a vaccinated adult.

Anyone who cannot be vaccinated due to a disability must also provide a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event. See more frequently asked questions here.

Among the stars who head the traditional farewell event of the year is the Colombian Karol G. In addition, there will be KT Tunstall, the Scottish singer-songwriter LL Cool J, Chlöe and Journey.

The celebrations begin around 6:00 pm with the lifting of the New Years Eve Ball and an opening cultural dance celebration presented by the Sino-American Friendship Association.

However, more could change in the coming days, the mayor’s office warned. The event is outdoors, of course, and for fully vaccinated people only, but Ómicron’s astonishing dominance over New York City in recent weeks means officials are making room for additional changes if needed before the next one. week.

“There is much to celebrate and these additional safety measures will keep the fully vaccinated crowd safe and healthy as we welcome the New Year,” de Blasio said, highlighting the city’s success in vaccinating residents while keeping them open. business.

“New York is the best place in the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve and now it will also be one of the safest against COVID,” Mayor-elect Eric Adams said in a written statement supporting the new precautions. “New Yorkers and visitors can now enjoy Times Square and the rest of our city in 2022.”

In an earlier, unrelated event, a more exuberant de Blasio said for the third time in as many days that Ómicron would be a setback but not paralyze the city’s progress.

“We are not going to close. We are not going to back down. We are going to fight to get through this,” the mayor said at the event in Brooklyn, reminding people of the $ 100 in cash his administration is offering to receive the booster shot before end the year.

The development comes just over a month after the outgoing mayor triumphantly declared that fully vaccinated crowds could return to Times Square to celebrate New Year’s Eve this year with no size limitations. It was a moment to consummate what de Blasio described as the epic and ongoing recovery of the five counties after an unthinkable human and economic loss from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Additionally, 11:59 pm on December 31 marks the end of Bill de Blasio’s mayoralty in New York City. The hope was that it would put a symbolic cap on the pandemic and, unlike New Year’s Eve 2020, allow New Yorkers and the world to really look forward to a more hopeful 2022.

Once again, the fierce tenacity of a virus that didn’t even exist when de Blasio was re-elected to overwhelm the world over and over again with its ability to mutate into more contagious or severe strains (or both) has stymied those plans. The Omicron variant took over, forcing city officials and event organizers to rethink how many people they wanted to allow in the heart of Manhattan.

On Tuesday, the Fox network delivered its verdict, disconnecting a planned live broadcast of the New Year’s Eve event. Both the Broadway Association, which has seen iconic productions ravaged by groundbreaking infections, and the Times Square Advertising Coalition on New Year’s Eve in Times Square pleaded with the mayor on Tuesday to let the show continue.

The organizations released a joint statement this week that said:

“Right now, all eyes are on New York City and a festive, safe, vaccinated and mask-filled outdoor celebration like New Year’s Eve in Times Square is exactly what we all need, now more than ever. , to say goodbye as we look forward to celebrating a new year when we follow science to remain open and safely welcome New Yorkers and visitors to the crossroads of the world. “

Last year’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square was an event where physical distance was paramount and attended by small groups of essential workers. De Blasio said last month that he would return in “full force” to ring in 2022. That won’t be the case now.

Amid new concerns, the mayor called Ómicron a “fast and temporary phenomenon” that is expected to increase in the coming weeks and then likely to dissipate. He noted that the majority of city residents are vaccinated, making the recent outbreak more manageable than when COVID-19 appeared in early spring 2020.

That is still the case, but the increase is now. It’s expected to be short-lived, perhaps in a matter of weeks, but it comes at the height of the holiday season.

Ómicron has already usurped the delta variant as the most dominant COVID strain in the United States, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all new cases last week, authorities say.

In the New York area, the CDC estimates that the prevalence of the variant has exceeded 90%.

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