Omicron Crashes Global New Year Party

But Offering Hope, South Africa Says Its 4th Wave Has Likely Passed Peak With No Major Spike In Deaths

Australians bade farewellto 2021 with a traditionalfireworks display over Sydney harbour as good news from South Africa — the first country to pronounce itself past its Omicron wave — brought hope for a joyous New Year. Thanks to Omicron, the New Year began its annual roll from East to West quietly — with no official firework display in Auckland, New Zealand.

Australia opened the global celebration in vintage style, with its usual spectacular pyrotechnics reflected in the harbour below the Sydney Opera House. But there would be no displays above many of the world’s traditional landmarks, with fireworks called off over Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, London’s Big Ben 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.