COVID-19 dampens New Year celebrations across the globe

Fireworks explode over deserted streets in some cities as 2020 slinks off into history; Pope misses leading New Year services because of leg pain flare-up; ‘hopefully 2021 will be easier on all of us’

This New Year’s Eve celebrated like no other in most of the world, with pandemic restrictions limited the crowds and many bidding farewells to a year they’d prefer to forget.

As the clock struck midnight across Asia and the South Pacific, the New Year’s experience mirrored countries’ responses to the virus itself. Some cancelled or scaled back festivities, while others without active outbreaks were able to carry on like any other year.

Blue and gold fireworks soared into the sky above the Sydney Opera House as they do every New Year’s Eve, but the harbour below was a deserted ghost town, a fittingly creepy send-off for a year that will not be missed.

No light show was to illuminate Beijing from the top of the TV tower. The lions of London’s Trafalgar Square were barricaded off, as was Red Square in Moscow and Madrid’s Puerta del Sol. In Rome, crowds would not assemble in St Peter’s, the Pope would lead no Mass, and revellers would not make their yearly dive into the Tiber. Good riddance, 2020. Hello, 2021.

Pope Francis, suffering a flare-up of a sciatica condition that causes pain in his right leg, missed a New Year’s Eve service on Thursday and will also not preside at a New Year’s Day Mass.