Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular Shows in N.Y.C. Canceled Due to COVID Breakthrough Cases

Steven Ferdman/Getty The Rockettes at the 2019 Christmas Spectacular show

The Radio City Rockettes are sitting out several performances due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases among members of the production.

On Friday morning, it was announced that the four Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes shows scheduled for the day would be canceled, with refunds available via wherever tickets were purchased.

"We regret to announce that the four shows sceduled for today, Friday, December 17 have been canceled due to breakthrough COVID-19 cases in the production. We apologize for the inconvenience, and will make announcements about future shows as soon as possible," read the official statement.

The 90-minute show, held at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, had slots for 11 a.m., 2 p.m, 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

At the Rockette performances, guests 12 and older must show proof they received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. "Fully vaccinated guests are not required to wear a mask," they outline on their website, adding, "Everyone else age 2 and older is required to wear a mask while in Radio City Music Hall, except while actively eating or drinking."

Breakthrough cases — COVID-19 infections that occur in people who have been fully vaccinated against the virus — are possible and expected, as the vaccines are not 100 percent effective in preventing infections. Still, vaccinated people who test positive will likely be asymptomatic or experience a far milder illness than if they were not vaccinated. The majority of deaths from COVID-19 — around 98 to 99 percent — are in unvaccinated people.

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As new COVID variants spread around the globe, there have been several recent shutdowns of popular Broadway shows.

Broadway has a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place that requires all audience members, performers, backstage crew and theatre staff to be vaccinated. Audience members must also wear masks while attending performances.

New York City is seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases. The percentage of people testing positive for the virus doubled in three days, according to NBC New York. Dr. Jay Varma, a health adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said "we've never seen this before," along with a graph of test results that he shared on Twitter Thursday.

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