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- 2021 started out eerily quiet under strict lockdown rules around the world.
- Most people watched the 2021 annual fireworks displays from the safety of their homes.
- In Cape Town, a shaft of light lit up the night sky in remembrance of the lives lost and those who fought on the front lines.
From Sydney Harbor Bridge to the Acropolis, fireworks erupted in the skies over eerily deserted landmarks as the world ushered in the New Year with quiet celebrations and bid farewell to a pandemic-ridden 2020.
After a grueling year in which at least 1.7 million people died from Covid-19, new waves of infection have prompted new closures and forced would-be revelers to extend their 2020 tradition of watching events from the couch.
The anxious opening seconds of 2021 fell on the Pacific nations of Kiribati and Samoa from 10:00 GMT. The uninhabited Howland and Baker Islands will be the last to capsize towards the New Year.
New Zealand, which has earned praise for its handling of the coronavirus, followed Kiribati and Samoa, with large crowds gathering in Auckland to watch a fireworks display.
In Sydney, Australia’s largest city, fireworks lit up the glittering harbor with a dazzling display, but few onlookers saw in person.
“I think everyone looks to 2021 as a new beginning and a new beginning,” Karen Roberts, one of the lucky few who were allowed to pass through the area’s checkpoints, told AFP at a bar located underneath the Sydney Opera House.
Fireworks light up the sky above the Opera House to bring in the New Year as seen from the new complex next to Crown Sydney Harbor on January 1, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo: James D. Morgan / Getty Images)
Some Hong Kongers, despite the restrictions, ventured out to mark the beginning of the year and gathered at Victoria Harbor to take selfies.
In Tokyo, where residents face the prospect of a state of emergency being imposed after infections reached new levels, people lined up with masks to offer New Year’s prayers.
Wuhan in China, where the virus first appeared late last year, saw thousands gather to celebrate, and Taipei also enjoyed a more traditionally upbeat celebration with crowds gathering to watch the fireworks.
In other places, the atmosphere was much more pessimistic.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin acknowledged in a New Year’s speech that a second wave of Covid-19 was hitting the nation.
“The fight against that doesn’t stop for a minute,” he said.
Italy, where shocking images of makeshift morgues and exhausted doctors awakened the world to the severity of the crisis, is on a national shutdown until January 7 with a 10 p.m. curfew.
The illuminated Eiffel Tower is seen during New Year’s Eve when a 20:00 to 06:00 curfew is implemented in France to prevent a third wave of Covid-19 infections, in Paris on January 1, 2021 (Photo: Alaattin Dogru / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
From France to Latvia to Brazil, police and, in some cases, military personnel are being deployed to make sure curfews or large rally bans are enforced.
Paris and Athens hosted socially distancing meetings, with a virtual concert and light show over Notre Dame in the French capital and fireworks over the Acropolis in Greece.
In London, 74-year-old American singer-songwriter Patti Smith was to celebrate the New Year with a tribute to National Health Service workers who died from Covid-19, screened on the Piccadilly Circus screen and broadcast on Youtube.
But due to the alarm over rising infection rates, the big-screen projection was canceled and the tribute could only be viewed online.
A few dozen revelers came to Parliament Square to watch Big Ben ring at 11 p.m. midnight in Brussels, marking the moment when Brexit finally became a reality, when Britain broke its turbulent media partnership. century with Europe.
However, the police ordered them to return home well before midnight.
Police officers patrol in Taksim Square during a general curfew imposed from Thursday 9:00 p.m. to Monday 5:00 a.m. local time within new measures against a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic (coronavirus) on the eve of New Years Eve, in Istanbul, Turkey on January 1, 2021 (Photo: Ahmet Bolat / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A fireworks and laser show was held in Dubai at the Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, where there have been a large number of new cases. Spectators were required to wear masks and register with identification QR barcodes.
In Beirut, still reeling from an explosion that devastated the city’s port in August, authorities were also unleashed.
The curfew was delayed at 3 a.m. and bars, restaurants, and nightclubs were allowed to reopen to host big parties.
On the shores of Lake Baikal in Siberia, where temperatures plummet to minus 35 degrees Celsius, about a dozen Russians emerged invigorated after a dip in the ice on New Year’s Eve.
The swimmers, known in Russia as “walruses,” ran several kilometers (miles) through a snowy forest in festive bathing suits and costumes before diving into the world’s largest freshwater lake.
“It’s invigorating. It hurts a little!” Andrei Bugai told AFP.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her New Year’s greeting to warn that the coronavirus crisis would drag on into 2021 even if vaccines bring some hope, as police clashed with revelers near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
As the last hours of 2020 passed in America, New York City authorities blocked public access to Times Square, where thousands of people often gather to watch a crystal ball fall at midnight.
A star-studded celebration will continue to be televised from the plaza with performances by artists like Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Gaynor, but their confetti will fall onto a largely deserted pavement.
As midnight approached, the United States, the most affected country in the world, was also approaching 20 million recorded infections and more than 345,000 deaths.
In Brazil, which has already recorded more than 193,000 deaths from Covid-19, the second-largest number in the world after the United States, Rio de Janeiro was blocking access to the beach to avoid the crowds of revelers that traditionally gather.
In South Africa, where the closed curfew is from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., the annual V&A Waterfront fireworks display at midnight was replaced by a beam of light that people could see from their homes. The beam, which consisted of 36 vertical reflectors, is part of the Waterfronts Tribute of Light that symbolizes the lives that were lost, the jobs that were affected, the union of a nation in solidarity and ultimately for hope in the new year .
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also asked citizens to light a candle at midnight in honor of the lost and those fighting at the front.
Fireworks display over the ancient Acropolis during New Year’s Eve celebrations on December 31, 2020 in Athens, Greece. New Years celebration fireworks were canceled or televised in major cities around the world in an attempt to slow the spread of Covid-19 infections. (Photo: Milos Bicanski / Getty Images)
