After last year’s quarantine, Times Square is ready to welcome back visitors for the traditional New Year’s celebrations… as long as they show proof of vaccination, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s statement today. For the past months, New York City has taken more strict measures regarding the control of the pandemic and the returning to normality compared to other states in the US, especially for those who refuse to get vaccinated. Christmas celebrations are also being planned to have a triumphal return starting with the placing of the Rockefeller Center tree last week.
De Blasio stated in a conference that New Yorkers and visitors will be able to welcome the New Year in the popular tourist area of Times Square, as they did before the pandemic, but this time they must prove they are vaccinated against covid-19 to celebrate the arrival of 2022, Mayor Bill de Blasio said today.
Everyone over the age of five will be required to present proof of vaccination by Dec. 16, because it takes two weeks for the body to develop immunity after being inoculated.
Those who cannot receive the vaccine for medical reasons will be required to present a negative test for the virus 72 hours before the mass event, de Blasio and Tom Harris, president of the Times Square Alliance, which represents businesses in the area, told a joint press conference.
Harris said that last Saturday Times Square welcomed more than 270,000 people and that in the past few months visits to the area have increased by 50%, which he attributed to vaccination efforts.
“A big, full-strength celebration is returning to New York,” the mayor enthused.
Unlike previous years, last year’s celebration featured only about 100 guests: doctors, nurses, supermarket clerks, and teachers, among other essential workers who risked their lives during the coronavirus pandemic, an epidemic that made New York the focus of the health crisis.
According to de Blasio, this return to the New Year’s Eve celebration is “further proof to the world that we are 100 percent back.”
The head of the city’s Health Department, Dr. Dave Chokshi, explained that the reason for the requirement to be fully vaccinated is to significantly reduce the risk of transmission, “which we know can occur outdoors, even though the risk is lower.”
Thousands of people, including many who travel to New York for this occasion, typically flock to Times Square each year, where they enjoy the performance of artists and join in, at 11:59 p.m., counting down to zero and ushering in the descent of the iconic crystal ball that welcomes the new year.
The ball is composed of 2,668 crystal triangles, illuminated by 32,256 red, blue, green and white LED bulbs that form a palette of thousands of shades and weigh 5,386 kilograms.
This celebration dates back to 1904, when the then editor of The New York Times, Adolph Ochs, wanted to organize a New Year’s Eve fireworks display on the roof of the newspaper to mark the move of the medium to its new offices, scheduled for a day later.
However, it was not until three years later that the mythical ball, which then weighed 317 kilograms, had a diameter of one and a half meters and had a hundred white bulbs attached to it, made its appearance.
Since then, it has been molded over the years with different materials and lighting, including an apple-shaped design in the 80s, until reaching the current appearance in 2007, on the occasion of the celebration of its first centenary, when the Waterford glass company and the lighting company Philips designed the new sphere. EFE
Text courtesy of EFE
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