(Bloomberg) — With Paris, London, Los Angeles and Rio de Janeiro scrapping New Year’s Eve celebrations as the omicron coronavirus variant sweeps the globe, eyes are turning to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to see whether he’ll bar revelers from Times Square. He promised to decide before Christmas.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams called off his inauguration ceremony scheduled for Jan. 1 at a theater in Brooklyn. “All I need is a mattress and a floor to execute being the mayor,” he said.
Fox canceled its televised New Year’s Eve party in Times Square, citing omicron’s rapid spread. And NBC moved its production to Miami from New York.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen Broadway theaters went dark and restaurants have closed across the country.
Among corporations, Walmart Inc. joined the list sending staff home, telling office employees to work virtually through Jan. 10. Tech giants including Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google have set their return dates to indefinite.
Read more: Omicron cancellations sweep Broadway, sports leagues
As virus infections move west, some companies jettisoned plans to attend January’s CES technology expo in Las Vegas. Twitter Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and others dropped out. And Mike Sievert, the chief executive officer of T-Mobile US Inc., canceled his keynote address. The show attracted more than 170,000 people when it was last held in person, in January 2020.
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