Billions around the world are starting to ring in 2022 after muted festivities last year, despite Omicron concerns putting a dampener on the revelry.
While some parties in major cities have been cancelled due to rising infections, South Africa, where the mutant strain was first detected, has lifted a curfew to allow the end-of-year parties to go ahead.
New Zealand, the first major country to see the New Year, kicked off the celebrations after easing its rules on public gatherings, and held a lights display in Auckland.
Australia’s largest city Sydney has also decided to press ahead with a firework display that lit up the city’s harbour, despite one of the world’s fastest-growing caseloads.
The ‘family fireworks’ took place three hours before midnight, with pyrotechnics illuminating the Sydney Opera House in a stunning display.
But just hours before the celebrations were due to begin, Australian health authorities reported a record 32,000 new virus cases, many of them in Sydney.
NEW ZEALAND: A light show from the Skytower and harbour bridge in Auckland kicked off New Year’s Eve celebrations in New Zealand
AUSTRALIA: The ‘family fireworks’, displayed three hours before midnight every year ahead of the main show at midnight, fill the sky over the Opera House in Sydney
CHINA: In Beijing, a child wearing a face mask stands in front of a 2022 sign as countries around the world mark the new year
NEW ZEALAND: The Skytower lit up as the clock struck midnight in the toned down celebrations in New Zealand, the first major country to see 2022
AUSTRALIA: The Sydney Harbour Bridge is illuminated with a stunning fireworks display to kick off the celebrations before the clock strikes midnight
AUSTRALIA: Authorities are expecting far smaller crowds than in pre-pandemic years, when as many as 1 million revelers would crowd inner Sydney
AUSTRALIA: Despite a surge in infections in Australia, many still headed out to party and listen to live music in Sydney on Friday
AUSTRALIA: In Melbourne, signs informed masked partygoers that no fireworks would be taking place due to the Covid restrictions
SOUTH KOREA: A woman walks near the decorations for New Year’s Eve celebrations in Seoul with countries preparing to ring in 2022
NEW YORK: The Waterford Crystal Installation is illuminated during a test run at Times Square ahead of the celebrations
KOSOVO: Decorations in downtown Pristina are already in place for the New Year’s celebrations after an end to a turbulent year
AUSTRALIA: A young girl watches the family fireworks with her mother at Alexandra Garden in Melbourne during the countdown to midnight
AUSTRALIA: Performers on stilts are seen performing in Federation Square during the celebrations in Melbourne as it rang in the New Year
Because of the surge, authorities were expecting far smaller crowds than in pre-pandemic years, when as many as 1 million revelers would crowd inner Sydney.
Dubai is planning a pyrotechnics spectacle at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, while the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah will attempt to break two world records with a huge fireworks display.
In Rio, celebrations on Copacabana Beach will go ahead in a scaled back format – though crowds of revellers are still expected.
In South Korea’s capital Seoul, the annual New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony was cancelled for the second straight year due to a surge in cases.
Officials said a pre-recorded video of this year’s bell-ringing ceremony would instead be broadcast online and on television. The ceremony had previously drawn tens of thousands of people. Last year’s cancellation was the first since the ceremony began in 1953.
South Korean authorities also planned to close many beaches and other tourist attractions along the east coast, which usually swarm with people hoping to catch the year’s first sunrise on New Year’s Day. On Friday, South Korea said it will extend tough distancing rules for another two weeks.
CHINA: A televised New Year’s speech by President Xi Jinping was broadcast across China including in restaurants and bars (pictured)
THAILAND: Devotees lay down in coffins during a resurrection ceremony to cleanse themselves of bad karma at the end of the year
AUSTRALIA: Police watch on as people gather in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, ahead of New Year’s Eve fireworks
CHINA: Kindergarten children hold Chinese character ‘Fu’, meaning ‘good luck’, to welcome the New Year during a day of muted celebrations
JAPAN: Shintoist priests walk past paper lanterns after concluding a ritual in preparation for the New Year at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo
In India, millions of people were planning to ring in the new year from their homes, with nighttime curfews and other restrictions taking the fizz out of celebrations in large cities including New Delhi and Mumbai.
Authorities have imposed restrictions to keep revellers away from restaurants, hotels, beaches and bars amid a surge in cases fueled by omicron.
But some places, including Goa, a tourist paradise, and Hyderabad, an information technology hub, have been spared from night curfews thanks to smaller numbers of infections, although other restrictions still apply.
In Hong Kong, about 3,000 people planned to attend a New Year’s Eve concert featuring local celebrities including boy band Mirror. The concert will be the first big New Year’s Eve event held since 2018, after events were cancelled in 2019 due to political strife and last year because of the pandemic.
AUSTRALIA: Partygoers in Melbourne hit the town despite a surge in new Covid infections with many deciding to join in on the New Year’s revelry
INDIA: A kitemaker flies a kite ahead of the New Year celebrations on the outskirts of Amritsar in Punjab state in India
ISRAEL: A vendor wears a pair of 2022 glasses and a Father Christmas hat in Tel Aviv with celebrations taking place around the world
CHINA: In Wuhan, where the Covid pandemic is believed to have originated, a Happy New Year 2022 sign is seen in a shopping mall
In China, the Shanghai government canceled events including an annual light show along the Huangpu River in the city center that usually draws hundreds of thousands of spectators.
There were no plans for public festivities in Beijing, where popular temples have been closed or had limited access since mid-December. The government has called on people to avoid leaving the Chinese capital if possible and requires tests for travelers arriving from areas with infections.
Popular temples in the eastern Chinese cities of Nanjing, Hangzhou and other major cities canceled traditional New Year’s Eve ‘lucky bell-ringing’ ceremonies and asked the public to stay away.
But in Thailand, authorities were allowing New Year’s Eve parties and firework displays to continue, albeit with strict safety measures imposed.
They were hoping to slow the spread of the omicron variant while also softening the blow to the country’s battered tourism sector. New Year’s Eve prayers, which are usually held in Buddhist temples around Thailand, will be held online instead.