A Happy New Year? Omicron mutes parties worldwide but South Africa offers hope

South Africa, which first raised alarm about the new fast-spreading coronavirus variant, gave the world one of the last big good surprises of the year -authorities lifted a curfew and said Omicron had crested. This brought hope for a happy New Year worldwide.

Sydney: Twenty twenty-one crept off with farewell celebrations around the world mostly muffled by the pandemic. But good news from South Africa - where authorities lifted a curfew and said Omicron had crested - brought hope for a happy New Year. The Australian city of Sydney was one place where the New Year charged in with something like full swagger, as spectacular fireworks glittered in the harbour below the Opera House. But many other landmark cities were forgoing pyrotechnics as midnight rolled across the globe, with displays called off at Paris`s Arc de Triomphe, London`s riverside and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

The golden ball was due to drop at New York`s Times Square, but the crowd shouting out the countdown of the year's exit would be a quarter the usual size, masked up, socially distanced and with vaccine papers in hand. Still, South Africa, which first raised the alarm about the new fast-spreading coronavirus variant, gave the world one of the last big good surprises of the year, becoming the first country to declare its Omicron wave had crested - and with no huge surge in deaths. The abrupt lifting of a nighttime curfew meant celebrations could ring in 2022.

"I'm pretty sure it's going to be amazing. I`m just hoping that Cape Town goes back to the old Cape Town that we all knew about," said Michael Mchede, manager of a Hard Rock cafe by the white sands of Cape Town`s Camps Bay Beach, thrilled to find himself getting the place ready to host an unexpected bash.