New York City's new mayor, Eric Adams, who was sworn in just after midnight on New Year's Day, said challenges lie ahead for the city with the current surge of COVID-19 cases, but New Yorkers must adapt to live with the virus.
"COVID is a formidable opponent and it continues to evolve, and we must pivot and evolve with it, but you can't do it viewing yourself from within the crisis," Adams told anchor George Stephanopoulos exclusively on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday. "We have to see ourselves past the crisis."
Adams also insisted shutdowns for New York were unlikely in his administration.
"If we close down our city, it is as dangerous as COVID," Adams said. "That's what our focus must be. So that proper balance of safety [and] keeping our economy operated is going to allow us to get through."
The fast spread of the omicron variant has dominated New York City, making it again the epicenter of pandemic, recording over 40,000 new COVID-19 cases in the last two days, while the daily average of confirmed cases for the last seven days has been nearly 24,000, per the NYC Department of Health.
Asked about the quickly moving variant, Adams said, "We've spent $11 trillion on COVID and we don't have another $11 trillion. So our lives can't be based on what's the new variant. No. We have to figure out: how do we adjust?"
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-pivot-evolve-covid/story?id=82032246