Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday that Americans should stay away from New Year’s Eve parties as the Omicron variant increasingly spreads across the country.
Appearing on CNN’s “New Day”, Fauci said “I would stay away from that” when asked about the usual parties that happen every year.
“I have been telling people consistently that if you’re vaccinated and boosted and you have a family setting, in the home with family and relatives,” then it’s okay to celebrate, Fauci explained.
“But when you’re talking about a New Year’s Eve party, we have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating. You do not know the status of their vaccination, I would recommend strongly stay away from that this year,” he added. “There will be other years to do that, but not this year”.
Besides Fauci, local and state officials have encouraged families to exclude unvaccinated members from holiday gatherings and even cancel gatherings altogether.
Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said “Please do not hold or attend holiday parties indoors, it’s just too dangerous”. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser asked people to “wear masks indoors, even at small gatherings”.
Fauci recently said he hopes the surge of COVID cases in the U.S. will subside in January, noting that hospitals may still be overwhelmed. “We really still need to be extremely careful,” he told MSNBC.
Over the Christmas weekend, thousands of flights were cancelled as major airlines faced staffing shortages due to sickness. A United Airlines spokesperson told FOX 5 News “the nationwide spike in Omicron cases this week has had a direct impact on our flight crews and the people who run our operation”.
