2020 finally ending, but New Year’s revelries muted by COVID-19

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other, with pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget.

Australia was among the first nations to ring in 2021 because of its proximity to the International Date Line.

It was a grim end to the year for New South Wales and Victoria, the country’s two most populous states, which are battling new COVID-19 outbreaks.

In past years one million people crowded Sydney’s harbour to watch fireworks that center on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but most watched on television as authorities urged residents to stay home.

Locations on the harbour were fenced off, popular parks closed and famous night spots eerily deserted.

A heavy police presence populated the otherwise quiet site, which resembled a ghost town.

A 9 p.m. fireworks display was scrapped but a seven-minute pyrotechnics show at midnight brought momentary cheer as fireworks spectacularly lit up the iconic Harbour Bridge and its surroundings.

People were only allowed in downtown Sydney if they had a restaurant reservation or were one of five guests of an inner-city resident.

People weren’t allowed in the city center without a permit.

Some harbourside restaurants were charging up to 1,690 Australian dollars ($1,294) for a seat, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Wednesday.

Sydney is Australia’s most populous city and has had its most active local transmission of the coronavirus in recent weeks.

Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populous city, cancelled its fireworks this year. “For the first time in many, many years we made the big decision, difficult decision to cancel the fireworks,” Mayor Sally Capp said.

“We did that because we know that it attracts up to 450,000 people into the city for one moment at midnight to enjoy a spectacular display and music. We are not doing that this year.”

New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its South Pacific island neighbours have no current COVID-19 cases, and New Year celebrations there were the same as ever.

In Chinese societies, the Lunar New Year celebration that falls in February in 2021 generally takes precedence over the solar New Year, on January 1.

While celebrations of the Western holiday have been growing more common in recent decades, this year will be more muted.

Beijing is holding a countdown ceremony with just a few invited guests, while other planned events have been cancelled.

And nighttime temperatures plunging to -15 Celsius (-5 Fahrenheit) will likely discourage people from spending the night out with friends.

Taiwan is hosting its usual New Year’s celebration, a fireworks display by its capital city’s iconic tower, Taipei 101, as well as a flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building on New Year’s morning.

The flag-raising will be limited to government officials and invited guests after a traveller who recently arrived in Taiwan was found to be infected with the new variant of the coronavirus.

The island has been a success story in fighting the pandemic, registering only seven deaths and 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Hong Kong, with its British colonial history and large expatriate population, has usually seen raucous celebrations along the waterfront and in bar districts.

For the second year running, however, New Year’s Eve fireworks have been cancelled, this time over coronavirus rather than public security concerns.

Much of Japan was welcoming 2021 quietly at home, alarmed after Tokyo reported a record number of daily coronavirus cases at about 1,300. It was the first time that daily cases in the capital have topped 1,000.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike asked people to skip countdown ceremonies and expressed concern about crowds of shoppers.

In South Korea, Seoul’s city government cancelled its annual New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony in the Jongno neighbourhood for the first time since the event was first held in 1953, months after the end of the Korean War.

The ceremony, in which citizens ring a large bell in a traditional pavilion when the clock strikes midnight, normally draws an estimated 100,000 people and is broadcast live.

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