Coronavirus: New York mayor Bill de Blasio says ‘no more shutdowns’ as city faces virus spike
- De Blasio has faced questions over the past week about whether he would call for closures after a wave of new cases fuelled by the omicron variant
- De Blasio, in the waning days of his term as mayor, will decide by Christmas whether the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will continue as planned
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is committed to keeping the city open as it grapples with yet another spike in coronavirus cases.
The Democratic mayor said on Tuesday that New York cannot see schools and businesses closed again like the city did in 2020 when Covid-19 first spread widely.
De Blasio has faced questions over the past week about whether he would call for closures as a wave of new cases fuelled by the omicron variant has broken over the city.
“Adamantly I feel this: No more shutdowns. We’ve been through them,” de Blasio said at a virtual news conference on Tuesday. “They were devastating. We can’t go through it again.”
De Blasio, in the waning days of his term as mayor, will decide by Christmas whether the annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square will continue as planned. The event was small and socially distanced last year but de Blasio had hoped to hold it this year at “full strength.” That was before reports of Covid-19 cases ramped up again.
While the fate of the outdoor New Year’s Eve event remained up in the air, De Blasio’s successor Eric Adams postponed his inauguration ceremony, scheduled for January 1 indoors at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre.