NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- As the size of New York City’s New Year’s Eve celebrations remain in the balance, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he prefers to push forward with their current plans.
“We’d like that event to move forward so long as we can do it safely, and that will be a decision with the health care leaders,” said de Blasio on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
De Blasio's plans for a full-on New Year's celebration that he announced last month were quickly put into doubt as omicron hit the city and state hard. It's postponed and canceled many Broadway shows and live sporting events.
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De Blasio denoted that the good news of the event is that it’s outdoors and will require attendees to be fully vaccinated. He also said they’re looking at possible added measures, but didn’t provide more insight into what they could be.
“It's a very important event to this city and to the world,” said de Blasio, who is set to leave office as the year ends. “And again, we don't want to live in defeat or surrender to COVID.”
De Blasio has said an announcement on what will happen for ringing in 2022 will be made by the weekend.
"I'm hopeful. We’ve got more work to do, and jury’s not back yet, but I'm hopeful," said de Blasio.
Fox’s “Toast and Roast 2022” New Year’s special from Times Square, which was due to be hosted by Joel McHale and Ken Jeong, was canceled due to the omicron uptick.
At this point, ABC’s Ryan Seacrest-hosted “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” and NBC’s Miley Cyrus and Pete Davidson New Year’s show (from Miami) are still on.
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Some 17,200 people tested positive in the city Tuesday setting another new one-day record since testing became widely available. New York City has seen the average number of people testing positive each day spike more than 220% in a week.
At least 89,000 people in the city tested positive in the seven day period that ended Tuesday.
Still, because of widespread vaccination, hospitalizations and deaths from the virus are far fewer than at the pandemic's height, or even during a holiday-period surge last winter.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.