London’s New Year’s Eve celebration event in Trafalgar Square will not take place because of the surge in cases of the Omicron Covid variant in the capital, Mayor Sadiq Khan has said.
The Mayor of London said the capital’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Trafalgar Square was being cancelled “in the interests of public safety”.
He said: “With infections of Covid-19 at record levels across our city and the UK, I’m determined to work closely with partners in our city to do everything we possibly can to slow the spread of the new variant and ensure our NHS services are not overwhelmed this winter.
“This means that we will no longer be hosting a celebration event for 6,500 people on Trafalgar Square this New Year’s Eve. This will be very disappointing for many Londoners, but we must take the right steps to reduce the spread of the virus.”
He said a “live broadcast spectacular celebrating our city and highlighting the most defining moments of 2021 will still be the centrepiece of London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations” and urged people to stay home and watch it live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer because it will not be visible from the ground or key locations in the capital.
Mr Khan declared a major incident in London on Saturday amid 65,525 new confirmed cases in the past seven days and the impact of the surge on frontline services.
A 29% increase in London hospital admissions had also been recorded in the last week.
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