Like so many things in 2020, New Year’s Eve is going to be a little different this year, and public health officials are hoping it is going to be very different.
You can still watch the ball drop in New York’s Times Square, but no one will be there to watch it in person. For the first time in more than a century, since the first ball dropped in 1907, Times Square will be closed to the public.
The million or more who usually gather there, and dance there and party there and kiss and hug there will have to gather somewhere else. And public health officials are hoping they don’t gather with anyone they don’t already live with. And not dance or hug with anyone that doesn’t. There won’t be New Year’s Eve parties this year and restaurants and bars won’t be filled with revelers this year.
The Centers for Disease Control sent out guidelines this week of what they hope most Americans do and don’t do, all the things we know we’re supposed to do and not do.
That’s because the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 comes at a time when the pandemic is now at its worst, with more cases, and more deaths this month than in any month so far. One epidemiologist saying it’s not just a surge, it’s a “viral tsunami”.
And that’s why here in San Diego and all of Southern California, the stay-at-home order is staying for the time being, with crowded hospitals and weary health care workers hoping January isn’t like December.
But there’s no doubt that all of us will find a safe way to still celebrate the end of what has been a really tough year…and be hoping and praying for a much better year ahead that we can celebrate on the next New Year’s Eve.
(Photo Getty Images)