New Year's Eve In New York Quiet Times Square

Illustration - a snowman seen as it started snowing in Times Square (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Only a handful of invited guests, including health workers and others from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, gathered on Thursday evening in New York's Times Square to watch the New Year's Eve ball fall, marking the end of 2020 and a hopeful start to 2021.

Over the decades, tens of thousands of people - many of them tourists - filled the blocks around Times Square on New Year's Eve, standing for hours in the cold waiting to watch shimmering crystal balls slide on poles mounted above skyscrapers in seconds. -the last second turn of the year. When the ball reached the bottom, the crowd immediately embraced each other, kissing in joy.

But this year Mayor Bill de Blasio and police officials have told New Yorkers and out of town to stay away and watch the small celebrations on television.

Police officers block New York's Times Square to prevent unauthorized people from gathering, in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Dozens of New Year's Eve events across the United States have also been restricted or redirected online.

"It will be, arguably, the most special, the most poignant, the most moving New Year's Eve," de Blasio, who will push the button to initiate the drop of the crystal ball, told reporters.

"In 2021, we will show people what it is like to recover, come back."

Some people didn't accept the mayor's appeal or decided to come to Times Square, hoping to see the ball early before the police began clearing the square of anyone not allowed to be in New York's Times Square.

"It's sad to see so much suffering, but I want to be here because it's my tradition," said Matt Wozniak, 41 year old New Yorker. "I've been coming for years, sometimes in large crowds. Now it feels different."

New York police only allowed a few dozen people to watch the ball fall at a spot called the Crossroads of the World in midtown Manhattan.

Organizers have invited grocery store workers, building attendants, a pizza deliveryman, doctors and nurses, including Sandra Lindsay, the New York nurse who became the first recipient of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.

The invited guests, wearing masks at a distance, gathered in front of the temporary stage set up in the square to watch a live performance by Bronx-born singers Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Gaynor, performing the classical disco music I Will Survive.

As for Las Vegas, Boston and surrounding areas, the official fireworks display has been canceled.