Reuters
The American New York City authorities closed Times Square in the city center today, Thursday, to prevent the gathering of New Year’s Eve celebrants and create additional hotbeds for the spread of the Corona virus in the city.
Only a small group of invitees, including health care workers and others from the front lines in dealing with the Corona virus epidemic, were allowed to follow the countdown to the New Year’s Eve ball dropped in the square.
City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that everyone should stay home and watch the festivities in this square through television channels, while dozens of celebrations across the United States have been similarly curtailed or switched entirely online.
Usually tens of thousands of celebrants fill the areas around Times Square and stand for hours in the freezing cold to watch the New Year’s Eve celebrations, as they watch that crystal ball slowly descends in the last seconds of the ending year.
More than 25,000 New Yorkers died this year of Covid-19, while the city was fighting last spring, the deadliest wave of the epidemic in the world.
Source: Reuters
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