White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci is urging Americans to avoid large New Year’s Eve celebrations where attendees are “hugging and kissing” as the Biden administration continues to struggle to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“If your plans are to go to a 40- to 50-person New Year’s Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a happy new year, I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that,” Fauci stated during the White House coronavirus briefing on Wednesday afternoon.
"If your plans are to go to a 40-50 person New Year's Eve party with all the bells and whistles and everybody hugging and kissing and wishing each other a Happy New Year, I would strongly recommend that this year we do not do that,” Dr. Fauci says. https://t.co/EtHaQHZyM1 pic.twitter.com/OemEdPaibC
— ABC News (@ABC) December 29, 2021
Fauci then warned of smaller events that “although the risk is never zero in anything, the risk is low enough that we feel you should continue to go through with those plans of having a home-related vaccinated, boosted gathering with family and close friends who are also vaccinated and boosted.”
Fauci remarks come after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) registered a new single day case record of 441,000 in the U.S. on Monday. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky pointed to the omicron variant as the main culprit behind the surge in cases.
“In a few short weeks, omicron has rapidly increased across the country. And we expect it will continue to circulate in the coming weeks,” Walensky stated.
Omicron is currently the dominant coronavirus strain at 73 percent of cases in the U.S., according to CDC figures.
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