World sees in the New Year despite Covid restrictions as party spirit overcomes Omicron concerns

Billions around the world are starting to ring in 2022, despite Omicron concerns putting a dampener on the revelry in a second year of muted celebrations.

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 pressed 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 throughout the night.

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

RUSSIA: Fireworks are set off over the city of Vladivostok as eastern Russia kicked off the country’s celebrations at midnight

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

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

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: 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

RUSSIA: Fireworks light up the night’s sky over Vladivostok in eastern Russia, sparking a string of celebrations across the world

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

AUSTRALIA: Millions around the globe will be celebrating, with Sydney the first city to hold a major fireworks display

AUSTRALIA: While there were still face masks and smaller crowds than usual, Australians still headed out in numbers to welcome in 2022 across the country

AUSTRALIA: The crowds were smaller at Circular Quay in Sydney, offering a stunning view of the world-famous festivities for those not daunted by the Covid doomsayers

AUSTRALIA: Revellers were only too happy to say goodbye to a tough 2021 and welcome in 2022 during scenes of festivity

AUSTRALIA: Sydneysiders were in a mood to welcome in 2022 and who could blame them as 2021 didn’t produce much to celebrate

 AUSTRALIA: Sydney’s famous harbour was awash with colour in a stunning display during the much-anticipated midnight fireworks display

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. 

Sydney normally bills itself as the ‘New Year’s Eve capital of the world’ but the vast harbour where people gathered to watch the city’s famous fireworks was notably uncrowded.

With tourists still unable to enter the country and many residents fearful of the rapid spread of Omicron, tens of thousands were estimated to have attended.

Still, the city saw New Year’s Eve in with a bang – igniting six tonnes of technicoloured fireworks that lit up the Opera House and floating barges, turning the Harbour Bridge rainbow-like.

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

INDIA: A tourist writes a new year’s greeting on the snow in a ski resort in Gulmarg, north of Kahmir, as celebrations took place around the world

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

POLAND: A traditional New Year’s Eve run took place in Krakow in the Small Square as part of the annual celebrations

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.