Fireworks explode over empty streets as 2020 sneaks into history

Fireworks explode over the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbor Bridge during reduced year-end celebrations due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia on January 1, 2021. REUTERS / Loren Elliott

The fireworks from the Sydney Opera House shot skyward, but the harbor below was empty like a ghost town, an eerie send-off to a year not to be missed.

No light show will illuminate Beijing from the top of the television tower. London’s Trafalfar Square lions will be barricaded. In Rome, crowds will not gather in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope will not lead Mass, and revelers will not make their annual dive into the Tiber.

The end of the year dance will fall on Broadway. But instead of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers huddled shoulder to shoulder in Times Square, the audience will be a small preselected group of nurses, doctors and other key workers, their families kept six feet apart in socially distanced pens.

Have a good trip 2020. Hello 2021.

With more than 1.7 million people dead and 82 million infected worldwide since last New Year’s Eve, but with the hope that new vaccines can help control the pandemic, the end of this year is like no other. another in memory. Angela Merkel, in her 16th New Year’s Eve speech as German Chancellor, said so.

“I think I’m not exaggerating when I say: never in the last 15 years have we found the old year so heavy. And never, despite all the concerns and some skepticism, have we looked forward to the new version so eagerly. “

“I can only imagine how bitter it must feel for those loved ones who are mourning and lost to the crown or who have to fight the repercussions of disease when the virus is disputed and denied by some desperate people,” Merkel said, 66, who said he would get vaccinated as soon as possible.

Germany has banned the sale of fireworks to deter the crowds. The Berlin authorities said the police would “systematically punish offenders.”

‘HELL OF A YEAR’

A girl wearing a “2021” mask and headband looks on in a shopping mall as New Year’s countdown celebrations and crowded events are banned amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID- 19) in Bangkok, Thailand on December 31, 2020. REUTERS / Athit Perawongmetha

In the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic originated a year ago, thousands of people were expected to gather at popular places in the city center for the countdown to 2021. Some said they were being cautious, but were not particularly concerned.

“Safety is the priority,” said Wang Xuemei, 23, a teacher, from Wuhan.

In Australia, where the Sydney Opera House fireworks are televised around the world as the first major visual display of the new year, movement was restricted, gatherings were banned and internal borders were closed. Most people were banned from going to central Sydney on Thursday night.

“It has been an incredible year,” said Gladys Berejiklian, prime minister of the state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney. “Hopefully 2021 is easier for everyone.”

In Britain, where a highly contagious variant of the virus is rampant and most people are under strict restrictions, authorities conducted a public message campaign on billboards and in the media urging people to “see the New Year safely at home. “

Barriers were erected in public places like London’s Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.

In Italy, the European country that has seen the most deaths from COVID-19, bars, restaurants and most shops were closed, and a curfew was established for New Year’s Eve between 10 p.m. and 10 p.m. 7 am

Pope Francis canceled plans to lead New Year’s Eve and New Year’s services due to an outbreak of his sciatica condition, the Vatican said.

In France, where a nightly curfew will also be in effect, no more than six adults will be allowed to gather around the table, but there will be celebrations, small, perhaps, but in style.

At “A la Ville de Rodez,” a luxury Parisian delicatessen, manager Brice Tapon was preparing packages of foie gras, truffles and pate for groups of two or three.

“I’ll … fill myself up on foie gras, champagne and all this food,” said Annie Chaplin, a customer. And I’ll stay home.

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