The Strokes have announced that they’ve had to postpone their New Year’s Eve show at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center due to a spike in Omicron cases.

The band were slated to play the New York venue on December 31, with support coming from IDLES and Hinds. However, due to the city’s rise in cases of the new coronavirus variant they’ve now been forced to postpone.

“How can we put this…. We’re postponing the show,” The Strokes said in a statement on Twitter. “We were so excited to be performing for everyone in Brooklyn this New Year’s Eve, but the Omicron variant has thwarted our plans. We’ve made the decision to postpone our show at Barclays Center.”

They continued: “All tickets will be honored for the rescheduled date & details regarding refunds will be offered when the new date is announced.

“We want everyone to stay safe and healthy and we look forward to celebrating the new year with all of you… just a bit later than originally planned.”

All tickets will be honored for the rescheduled date & details regarding refunds will be offered when the new date is announced.

We want everyone to stay safe and healthy and we look forward to celebrating the new year with all of you… just a bit later than originally planned.

— The Strokes (@thestrokes) December 24, 2021

Ticketholders can request a refund if they aren’t able to attend the new dates – which are yet to be announced – or keep their tickets for the rescheduled shows.

At the time of writing, the state of New York has recorded 38,835 new positive daily cases of COVID-19.

Last week (December 16), New York state reported its highest single-day case figures with 21,027 new cases – beating the previous record which was clocked on January 14, 2021. The number of positive cases also increased 154 per cent in less than a week.

In recent weeks, the likes of The Charlatans, Supergrass, Sam Fender, Paul Weller, Coldplay, and LCD Soundsystem have all scrapped shows due to COVID infections while The Streets have pulled their entire 2022 tour.

Meanwhile, The Strokes have been added to the line-up for next year’s Best Kept Secret. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Alt-J and more have also been announced to play the Dutch festival’s comeback edition.