Covid-safe New Year's Eve celebrations - are they possible?
Friday, December 31, 2021 @ 9:54 AM
Public celebrations of the New Year are being cancelled left, right and centre in the face of the ever-increasing number of people infected with the latest variant of the Covid-19 virus - the highly contagious Omicron.
Of the ten most populous cities in Spain, only Madrid and Seville are going ahead with their planned New Year's Eve celebrations - the mass public gatherings to eat the traditional 12 grapes as the clock strikes the 12 'bongs' for midnight.
In contrast, nine autonomous communities have rushed through new restrictions like curfews, or the closing of restaurants and bars by midnight to try to stop the spread. For the second year running, it looks like the virus is going to change people's chariots back into pumpkins and have most of us scurrying for home by midnight.
However, if dancing the night away in a club is your favoured way of seeing in the New Year, you will still be able to do that in Madrid, the Valencian Community, Castilla & León, Extremadura or Castilla-La Mancha. Experts agree, however, that this is probably the "riskiest" way of waving goodbye to 2021 in terms of the likelihood of catching Covid from fellow revellers and recommend small get-togethers at home as the "safest" way of bringing in 2022.
Open-air parties are definitely safer than those in enclosed spaces, and if you are getting together with lots of people, if you can keep your mask on as much as possible and open doors and windows you will also give yourself the best chance of not starting the year infected with Covid and in isolation.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com