Crowds will once again fill New York’s Times Square this New Year’s Eve, albeit with proof of COVID-19 vaccination required for revellers who want to watch the famous ball drop in person. New York mayor Bill de Blasio has confirmed that the celebration is still currently scheduled to take place despite the discovery of the Omicron variant.

“(The) wonderful celebration in Times Square, the ball drop, everything, (is) coming back full strength the way we love it,” de Blasio said recently. “Hundreds of thousands of people there to celebrate. We can finally get back together again. It’s going to be amazing.”

Tom Harris, the president of the Times Square Alliance, said all spectators aged five and over will be asked to show proof of full vaccination. People who can’t be vaccinated because of a disability will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test, he said.

The New Year’s Eve celebration, perhaps the city’s most iconic public gathering, was a socially distant affair during the height of the pandemic last year.

There were no packed crowds of giddy revelers, jammed together cheek-by-jowl. Instead, there were most empty streets as officials told people to stay home and watch the ball drop on television. Entertainers including Jennifer Lopez performed behind police barricades to small groups made up of essential workers.

With the advent of vaccines, the city’s public celebrations have been on the upswing in 2021. The Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks once again welcomed crowds to gather and watch as fireworks lit up the sky, and some parades have returned to city streets.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade returned to pre-COVID form on Nov. 25, with giant balloons guided by volunteer handlers making their way through the event’s Manhattan parade route, instead of the one-block stretch they were kept to last year.