Isabel Zonadio just got off the plane from Arizona a few hours ago. Now the lady in her glowing green LED mask is standing with her husband and four children at the Christmas market at Bryant Park – right next to the famous Public Library. “It’s like in a movie!” She enthuses and points to the illuminated Christmas tree behind the ice rink, the stands with Christmas tree balls, the hot chocolate. “That warm Christmas feeling – that’s why we came!”, She explains.
Nobody in New York has heard of G2 or G3 for Christmas markets. Here people push themselves tightly through the crowd while the song “Happy Elf” can be heard from the loudspeaker. Most wear a mask, but not all of them. If Fran Pappas had their way, everyone should take off their masks anyway. The New Yorker is out with her friends from New Jersey and has her picture taken in front of the fountain. And she knows what she wants: “We should all finally take off these masks. We should return to normal! “
In fact, things were almost back to normal in New York: the Broadway musicals had reopened. With the end of the Travel Ban, tourists were slowly coming back to the city, and many restaurants were as busy as in the pre-pandemic times. Many banks and authorities had also brought their employees back to the offices.
But then Omikron came along. And while the tourists are besieging Christmassy New York, many New Yorkers have a queasy feeling that is reminiscent of March 2020. In Times Square that evening, the masses of tourists slide under the neon advertising. But if you were there a few hours beforehand, you could discover another spectacle: a queue almost a hundred meters long in front of the tent for Covid tests.
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Whether in front of the pharmacies, the Urgent Care Centers or the test tents in the city: Everywhere people stand in line, sometimes for hours, around entire blocks to find out whether they have caught the virus.
On Sunday alone, New York State registered 22,500 new Covid cases, half of them in New York City. The number of cases in the past week has more than doubled compared to the four-week average.
Broadway shows cancel performances
Ten of the 32 Broadway musicals such as Aladdin and Hamilton and the Rockettes Christmas show in the Radio City Music Hall had to cancel their performances these days because too many of those involved fell ill with Covid. The same goes for the Brooklyn Nets basketball team. The television show “Saturday Night Live” has no live audience, the union for film crews announced a work freeze on Saturday. Citi, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley send their employees to work from home, as does the television station CNN.
And whether the famous New Year’s Eve party can take place in Times Square has not yet been decided. The same goes for the inauguration ceremony of the new Mayor Eric Adams.
“We are currently feeling the Omikron wave particularly strongly. But we know it will soon be everywhere in the country, ”said outgoing Mayor Bill De Blasio in a press conference on Sunday. He speaks from experience: Once again it is the most international city in the United States that serves as a gateway for the virus to enter the country. Just as the virus was brought to the city by travelers to Europe in February and March 2020 and was finally carried on, so is Omikron New York where the numbers rise first.
Joe Biden plans to give a speech on Omikron on Tuesday
The seriousness of the situation is shown by the fact that De Blasio called on US President Joe Biden to use the Defense Production Act to send important test and treatment kits to the city. Biden himself has announced a speech on Omikron for Tuesday afternoon.
In New York, the mask requirement for interiors has been in effect again for ten days. De Blasio promised New Yorkers a million masks and half a million rapid tests to take at home. These rapid tests are very expensive and difficult to come by in the US. What costs two euros in Germany is available here for 25 dollars.
In his press conference on Monday, the mayor got his fellow citizens in the mood for “some challenging weeks”. “But the good news, based on what our health system representatives are saying right now, is that it’s a matter of weeks,” said De Blasio – not months or years.
“The props are all there. But still the energy is different. “
Unlike in March 2020, this time more than 70 percent of New Yorkers are fully vaccinated, many have already been boosted. The city’s hospitals registered only 21 percent more people admitted with Covid-19 in the past week, despite twice as many cases in the population, most of them unvaccinated. De Blasio was optimistic that New York’s hospitals will be able to cope with the increase this time. The scenes of refrigerator trucks with dead people should not be repeated again.
Most tourists hardly notice all of these worries. On the ice rink at Bryant Park, the Zamboni polishing machine glides over the white surface to Maria Carey’s “All I want for Christmas”. Two teenagers in their thick winter jackets record a TikTok video in front of the Christmas backdrop.
But New Yorkers notice the difference: “Actually everything is the same,” observes hip-hop artist Lance Romance, who grew up in the Bronx and now lives two hours east in the Hamptons – the Christmas tree, the people, the music . “The props are all there. But still the energy is different. Mentally, people are not the same, ”says the 55-year-old, who has spent many Christmases in New York. Almost two years of pandemic and now Omikron, however, tarnished the holiday mood this year.
Lance Romance, whose latest album is called “Get Vaccinated”, nevertheless plunges into the hustle and bustle wearing a mask. Together with his girlfriend from Texas, the hip-hopper moves on to Rockefeller Center. “New York is where you want to see Christmas,” he knows. But despite all the enthusiasm, he makes one thing clear: “I don’t sit on Santa’s lap!”
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