LL Cool J will not be performing on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest on Friday, as he’s tested positive for COVID-19. 

People Magazine reported the rapper and actor was supposed to perform a pre-midnight show in Times Square for New Year’s Eve during an event that had been scaled down because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

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“I know it’s disappointing to the millions of fans but my test came back positive for COVID, which means I’ll no longer be able to perform as scheduled at NYRE,” LL Cool J said in a statement to People. “We were ready and I was really looking forward to ringing in 2022 in my hometown in a special way, but for now I wish everyone a healthy and happy New Year. The best is yet to come!” 

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New York is currently suffering the most severe wave of COVID-19 infections it has seen since the beginning of the pandemic, with the city’s rolling daily case average up 122% over the previous four weeks, according to NBC New York. Transmission has increased across the city and in the last five days, the hospitalization rate has doubled. 

The CDC recently lowered the period spent in isolation for asymptomatic people infected with the COVID-19 virus from 10 days to five.