Times Square in New York was barricaded on Thursday, with only a handful of invited guests, including healthcare workers and others from the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, allowed in to watch the New Year's Eve ball drop in person.
Everyone else should stay home and watch the pared-down festivities on TV, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, with scores of events across the US curtailed or moved online.
Tens of thousands of people usually fill the blocks around Times Square, standing for hours in the cold at the focal point of US New Year's Eve celebrations, waiting for a crystal ball to slowly descend in the year's final seconds.
Police allowed in only a few dozen this year, with masks and no sign of fever required for entry.
They included the Bronx-born singer Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Gaynor, who was due to sing her disco classic I Will Survive for a few dozen frontline workers and their families.
Organisers invited a grocery shop worker, a doorman, a pizza delivery man and medics, including Sandra Lindsay, the New York nurse who this month became the first recipient of a coronavirus vaccine in the US outside a trial.
More than 25,000 New Yorkers were killed by Covid-19 in 2020 as the city at one time grappled with the world's deadliest outbreak back in the spring.
"It's going to be actually, arguably, the most special, the most poignant, the most moving New Year's Eve," said Mr de Blasio, who will push the button to start the crystal's ball descent.
"In 2021, we're going to show people what it looks like to recover, to come back."
As new daily case tallies continue to rise across the US, bars and restaurants and other gathering places are closed or have sharply limited capacity.
In Las Vegas, Boston and beyond, official fireworks displays were cancelled.
Organisers of Boston's annual First Night arts festival on New Year's Eve arranged for six hours of live performances streamed online by local musicians and artists.
