World ushers in New Year as curtain closes on 2020
- Millions around the world bid farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget
- Some cities cancel or scale back their festivities because of Covid-19
This New Year is being celebrated like no other in most of the world, with many bidding farewell to 2020, a year they’d prefer to forget.
From the South Pacific to New York City, pandemic restrictions on open air gatherings saw people turning to made-for-TV fireworks displays or packing it in early since they could not toast the end of 2020 in the presence of friends or carousing strangers.
As midnight rolled from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas, the New Year’s experience mirrored national responses to the virus itself. Some countries and cities cancelled or scaled back their festivities, while others without active outbreaks carried on like any other year.
Australia was among the first to ring in 2021. In past years, 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbour to watch fireworks. This time, most watched on television as authorities urged residents to stay home to see the seven minutes of pyrotechnics that lit up the Sydney Harbour Bridge and its surroundings.
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World bids farewell to 2020 as Covid-19 mutes New Year celebrations
In New York’s Times Square, the ball dropped like always, but police fenced off the site synonymous with New Year’s Eve to prevent crowds of any size from gathering.
In China’s capital Beijing, an annual New Year light show at the China Central Television Tower scheduled for Thursday through Sunday was called off.