New Year’s Eve Will Return to Times Square for Vaccinated Guests
NEW YORK — As the clock runs out on 2021, New York City will ring in the new year with festivities meant to signal its post-pandemic rebirth: Once again, an untold number of hearty souls will descend on Times Square, braving the cold, the crowds and the police cordons to watch the ball drop at midnight on New Year’s Eve. After a scaled-down celebration last year, the famously frigid event will return at “full strength,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday. It will be de Blasio’s final act running New York City, after eight years in office, and serve as a prelude to his possible bid for governor next year. “We want to welcome all those hundreds of thousands of folks, but everyone needs to be vaccinated,” de Blasio said. “Join the crowd, join the joy, join a historic moment as New York City provides further evidence to the world that we are 100% back.” The New Year’s celebration will come four months after lightning cut short a star-studded “homecoming concert” that was also designed to signal the city’s comeback. Proof of vaccination was also required to attend that event, which drew thousands to Central Park. The New Year’s festivities will present a logistical, and perhaps philosophical, puzzle for the city’s police officers, who fought the mayor’s vaccination mandate for public servants. Police will have to not only contend with crowd control but also confirm that would-be attendees are vaccinated. “We defer to the Police Department on operational issues like this, unless it impacts the guy and gal on the street,” said John Nuthall, a spokesman for the Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the city’s police officers. Attendees who are unable to be inoculated because of a disability will have to show proof that they had a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours of the event. Children younger than 5, who are not yet eligible for vaccines, will have to be accompanied by a vaccinated adult. Masks will be required for any attendees who are not vaccinated, said Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance. Asked at a news conference why vaccination would be mandatory to attend the ball drop when it is not required for many other outdoor activities in New York, de Blasio said a crowded, hourslong event drawing people from around the country and the world required greater precaution.
