Good riddance to 2021: New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide muted for 2nd straight year
CBC
Good riddance to 2021. Let 2022 bring fresh hope.
That was a common sentiment Friday as people around the world got ready to welcome in the new year.
In many places, plans for New Year's Eve celebrations were muted or cancelled for the second straight year due to a surge of coronavirus infections, this time driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Even before Omicron hit, many people were happy to say goodbye to a second grinding year of the pandemic.
But so far, at least, the Omicron surge hasn't resulted in the same levels of hospitalizations and deaths as previous outbreaks — especially among vaccinated people — offering a glimmer of hope for 2022.
In Japan, writer Naoki Matsuzawa said he would spend the next few days cooking and delivering food to the elderly because some stores would be closed. He said vaccinations had made people less anxious about the pandemic, despite the new variant.
"A numbness has set in, and we are no longer overly afraid," said Matsuzawa, who lives in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo. "Some of us are starting to take for granted that it won't happen to me."
Like many other people, Matsuzawa hopes that life will improve in 2022.
"I hope the restrictions can disappear," he said.
Across Japan, many people planned to take new year trips to spend time with their families. On New Year's Eve, people thronged temples and shrines, most of them wearing masks.
Some appeared to be shrugging off virus fears, however, by dining and drinking raucously in downtown Tokyo and flocking to shops, celebrating not only the holidays but a sense of exhilaration over being freed from recent virus restrictions.
Because of where the international date line sits, countries in Asia and the Pacific region are among the first to usher in each new year.
Australia was planning to go ahead with its celebrations despite an explosion in virus cases. The centrepiece of festivities is the renowned fireworks display from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.
Hours before the celebrations were due to begin, Australian health authorities reported a record 32,000 new virus cases, many of them in Sydney. Because of the surge, authorities were expecting far smaller crowds than in pre-pandemic years, when as many as one million revellers would crowd inner Sydney.