After pandemic year, the world celebrates the arrival of 2021

The planet comes out this Thursday, December 31 of the year 2020, a year marked by the Coronavirus pandemic, what caused at least 1,806,072 deaths worldwide. Due to restrictions to control and prevent contagion, in many countries New Years celebrations have been held at home, away from massive celebrations on the streets, but the hope was global: that 2021 will be a year “with less Covid-19”.

The new waves of the epidemic have forced a majority to follow the celebrations from their homes, and to avoid massive gatherings in the central points of the most important cities. From Sydney to Rome, citizens will witness fireworks and performances via television or computer screen, until these festivities are canceled.

Thousands of people celebrated the arrival of 2021 in the center of Wuhan, the Chinese city where the covid-19 pandemic began, with the launch of balloons into the air. Police were on the streets to avoid crowded gatherings in front of the old customs building, but this measure was ineffective and hundreds of young people celebrated the New Year. Most people wore masks and gathered to watch a light show.

Wuhan has been under a very strict lockdown for two months since the end of January, but life returned to normal by mid-year and schools reopened in September.

How Australia and the Pacific Islands celebrated New Years 2021

The small archipelago of Kiribati and the Samoa Islands In the Pacific, they were the first to arrive in 2021 at 10:00 GMT, while the uninhabited islands of Howland and Baker will have to wait another 26 hours.

New ZealandA country applauded for its handling of the pandemic, we greeted the New Year an hour later, with large crowds gathered in Auckland for a fireworks display. Despite remaining isolated by closed borders, New Zealand was able to celebrate the arrival of 2021 with relative normality thanks to the fact that it has not recorded any cases of local transmission for months.

In SydneyAustralia’s largest city, the famous New Year’s Eve fireworks display lit up the harbor with a dazzling spectacle at 13:00 GMT, but with few spectators. Plans to allow large crowds were scrapped after a recent outbreak in the city’s north, totaling around 150 cases, was scrapped, limiting travel to and from Sydney.

In Phone, which entered 2021 at 3:00 p.m. GMT, residents face the possibility of an imposed state of emergency, after a daily record of 1,300 new coronavirus infections was recorded.

Wuhan, from the epicenter of the pandemic to the tourist hub

In Europe, Italy, one of the focal points of the first wave of infections that has made the rest of the planet aware of the gravity of the pandemic crisis, governs a population lockdown until January 7, with a cover-up fire 22 hours.

Romans will attend the evenings from home at the Circus Maximus, the city’s oldest stadium, where there will be two hours of performances and an illumination of the city’s most iconic sites.

Of Brazil until Latvia, passing for France, police and soldiers will be deployed, in some cases, to ensure compliance with the curfew and the ban on gatherings. In Brazil, the second most affected country in the world, which has recorded more than 193,000 deaths from covid-19, doctors fear a new wave. In recent days, videos of people without masks have circulated on social networks and television has broadcast images of police closing bars full of customers.

In London, seriously affected by the pandemic, the american singer Patti Smith will offer a live concert, in tribute to the caregivers of the NHS, the public health system of the United Kingdom, who died as a result of covid-19. It will be shown live on the Piccadilly Circus screen and streamed on YouTube.

In DubaiThousands of people watched a fireworks and laser illumination show at Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world, despite a large number of new cases. Participants must wear a mask and register with a QR code.

Coronavirus effect: Seville suspends Holy Week processions

German Chancellor Angela Merkel He took advantage of his New Years message on Thursday to remember that the “historic” coronavirus crisis will extend until 2021, despite vaccines.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, said in his final speech of 2020: “The hope is there, in the vaccine that human ingenuity managed to create in just one year.”

For his part, the Russian president, Vladimir Poutine, admitted in his end-of-year speech that a second wave of coronavirus is hitting Russia. “Unfortunately, we have not yet stopped the epidemic. The fight against the epidemic does not stop for a minute,” he said.