NEW YORK (AP) – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is committed to keeping the city open as it grapples with a huge surge in coronavirus cases.
US Democrats said on Tuesday that New York may not see schools and businesses closed again as they did when COVID-19 first hit the city in 2020.
De Blasio announced that the city will begin offering a $100 cash incentive to New Yorkers who will receive a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine starting Tuesday and going through the end of the year.
The city had previously offered similar incentives for people to receive their first vaccine doses.
De Blasio has faced questions over the past week as to whether he will reinstate Closer as the Omicron variant Surge in the city.
“Strongly I feel this: No more shutdowns. We’ve been through them,” de Blasio said in a virtual news conference on Tuesday. “They were devastating. We can’t go through it again. ,
In this image taken from video, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during a virtual press conference in New York on December 2, 2021. (AP photo)
De Blasio, in the waning days of his term as mayor, will decide until Christmas whether the annual New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square will continue as planned. The event was small and socially distant last year, but de Blasio hopes to hold it “in full force” this year. Before the COVID-19 cases were reported again.
While the fate of the New Year’s Eve outdoor event remained up in the air, de Blasio’s successor Eric Adams postponed the January 1 opening ceremony at the King’s Theater in Brooklyn.
The mayor-elect issued a statement on Tuesday saying the ceremony would be rescheduled for a later date so that the health of attendees, staff and journalists could be “prioritized”.
“It is clear that our city is facing a formidable opponent in the Omicron version of COVID-19, and the spike in cases presents a serious risk to public health,” Adams said.
Two other Democratic officials, city comptroller-elect Brad Lander and public advocate Jumane Williams, were also to attend the ceremony and co-signed Adams’ statement announcing its postponement. Williams is staying at home after recently testing positive for COVID-19.
Adams will still take over as mayor on January 1. His spokesman, Evan Theiz, said it would take a long time for the mayor-elect to re-close New York City.
“They believe we can balance public health priorities and keep New York open in a safe and responsible way as we aggressively address the omicron threat with more vaccinations, boosters and testing.” There are,” Thies said.
Temporary restrictions were imposed in city prisons late Tuesday, with the Department of Corrections saying events such as in-person visits and religious services had been suspended.
Parents wearing masks pick up their children outside PS 64 in the East Village neighborhood of New York, in New York, December 21, 2021. (Brittany Newman/AP)
De Blasio said the city is ramping up testing but the biggest means of fighting the pandemic is vaccination.
The mayor also said the federal government is expected to help establish more testing sites in New York City and that the city will increase its city-run sites, including brick-and-mortar locations and mobile testing vans.
As recently as December 13, the city was reporting an average of 3,600 new cases of COVID-19 every day. But after nearly 63,500 people tested positive in just five days, the average daily number of infections had reached nearly 11,000 by Monday – a 207% increase in a week.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.