LOS ANGELES — A growing list of holiday events in Los Angeles County have been canceled or postponed amid a burgeoning wave of COVID-19 cases tied to the Omicron variant.
For the second year in a row, the New Year's Eve countdown celebration in downtown L.A.'s Grand Park has transitioned to streaming-only after park officials said it was too risky to congregate in person.
The event, which is operated by the Music Center, had been slated to include an invite-only audience of the county's frontline workers and first responders.
"Given the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in the county, the Music Center/Grand Park team determined the safest route to continue with this popular annual tradition would be to eliminate a live audience," event officials said.
The celebration will be broadcast on Fuse and streamed on Grand Park's YouTube channel beginning at 11 p.m. Dec. 31.
The decision arrives as L.A. County is experiencing some of its highest daily coronavirus case numbers in months. On Sunday, the county's public health department reported 3,512 new cases of COVID-19 — up from 1,460 a week ago.
Hospitalizations also are climbing. There are 743 patients in L.A. County hospitals with a confirmed case of the coronavirus — an increase of about 25% from two weeks ago, according to The Times tracker.
Grand Park isn't the only place making changes: The NFL postponed Sunday's scheduled Rams' game at SoFi Stadium until Tuesday because of a coronavirus outbreak that ravaged its roster, officials said.
Two Anaheim Ducks' games slated against Edmonton and Vancouver were postponed indefinitely amid concerns about "cross-border travel," according to the National Hockey League.
Meanwhile, UCLA's men's basketball game against North Carolina was canceled over the weekend because of "COVID-19 developments within the Bruins' program," the university said, and all other UCLA team-related activities have been paused.
Upcoming performances of "The Nutcracker" at the university's Royce Hall also were canceled after breakthrough cases among the cast, as were performances of "A Christmas Carol" at the Ahmanson Theatre in downtown L.A.
Residents, too, are altering their plans amid the spread of the Omicron variant, with reports mounting of canceled travel plans, parties and visits. Some experts say it would be prudent to make adjustments.
"Case rates and daily hospitalization admissions are steadily increasing, and we anticipate that they will continue to increase," Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said last week. "If we fail to take common sense safety measures right now, we could find ourselves in a dangerous place by the end of the month and into January."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden's chief medical advisor on the pandemic, said Sunday the nation should be prepared for big spikes in hospitalizations and deaths, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, because of the spread of Omicron.
"We are going to see a significant stress in some regions of the country on the hospital system, particularly in those areas where you have a low level of vaccination," he told CNN.
