White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested on Monday that Americans "stay away" from large New Year's Eve gatherings this year due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant.
“When you are talking about a New Year’s Eve party, where you have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating, you do not know the status of the vaccination — I would recommend strongly, stay away from that this year,” Fauci told CNN. “There will be other years to do that, but not this year.”
There has been a 105% increase in COVID-19 cases over the last 14 days, with more than 243,000 average cases on Dec. 27, according to data collected by The New York Times.
Fauci gave similar advice for New Year's Eve as he did for the Christmas holiday -- fully vaccinated people can be within a close family setting with other family members who are fully vaccinated and have received boosters.
73% of Americans or over 242 million have received at least one vaccination shot, while 61.8% or over 205 million people have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC's records. However, only 32.3% or over 66 million people have received their booster shot.
The New York City ball drop on Friday night, one of the biggest New Year's Eve parties, will require masks for those in attendance and capped the crowd size to 15,000 people, down from the average 58,000 in attendance.
New Year's Eve festivities across the world have already been cancelled, including events in Athens, Berlin, Edinburgh, London, New Delhi, Paris, and Rome.
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