City officials, businesses and residents are trying to strike a delicate balance — preventing a full-blown public health crisis while trying to keep the city open and running. This month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) instituted a statewide requirement that masks be worn in all indoor public places unless businesses or venues implement a vaccine requirement.

Outgoing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) has flatly ruled out a lockdown as was imposed in the early days of the pandemic, and he announced this week that schools will reopen as planned on Jan. 3. But parts of New York are shutting down fully or partially of their own will. As the city logged record-high numbers of infections this week, officials struggled to provide basic services to New York’s 8.8 million residents.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority started suspending subway service on Wednesday because there weren’t enough healthy transit workers to operate the entire system. As of Thursday night, service on three subway lines had been stopped.

Meanwhile, the New York City Fire Department has pleaded with residents to call 911 only if they were experiencing a “real emergency.” With a third of the agency’s paramedics out sick, department officials said the system was being overwhelmed by calls from people with mild covid-19 symptoms who wanted ambulance rides to hospitals to be tested for coronavirus infection. The New York Police Department canceled days off for any officer healthy enough to work through the New Year’s holiday after hundreds of officers tested positive for the virus.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s own supporters are growing increasingly restless awaiting Donald Trump’s reinstatement as president, as an endless stream of self-imposed deadlines touted by the pillow executive has come and gone. On his Thursday evening live stream, Lindell railed against “bots” and “trolls” that have been posing questions and statements on his Facebook page, such as: “Mike, you keep making promises. I don’t see Donald Trump.” Then, referring to his own fans growing impatient with his own fruitless promises, Lindell fired back: “Those are bots and trolls. Any real person out there would know we are doing everything we can!” Lindell’s supporters have also become increasingly vocal on his Telegram over the yet to occur Trump reinstatement, which was initially slated for August. ‘They [the bots and trolls] attack, it’s relentless,” he noted. Lindell didn’t return The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Thursday night.