New Year's Eve celebrations were muted or canceled in many places around the world for the second straight year due to a surge of COVID-19 infections.
Even before omicron hit, many people were happy to say goodbye to a second grinding year of the pandemic.
"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.""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.
Fireworks are seen over the Sydney Opera House during New Year's Eve celebrations on Dec. 31, 2021, in Sydney, Australia. New Year's Eve celebrations continue to be somewhat different as some COVID-19 restrictions remain in place due to the ongoing cHours before the celebrations were due to begin, Australian health authorities reported a record 32,000 new virus cases, many of them in Sydney.
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. 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 canceled in 2019 due to political strife and last year because of the pandemic.
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