New Year's Eve 2021: Celebrations around the world despite Covid fears

New Year celebrations have started to kick off around the planet after a rollercoaster 12 months.

People are preparing to bid farewell – and perhaps good riddance – to 2021, but the pandemic hangs heavy over festivities.

The Omicron variant is casting a shadow on New Year around the world, with populations hoping to get together with friends and family contending with varying levels of restrictions. 

Millions of Europeans will have to make do with scaled back events after restrictions were reintroduced across the continent.

But the party is already well under way in New Zealand in Australia already after months of tight restrictions and border controls.

Auckland has been lit up after the government gave the go ahead to celebrations in recent days.

New Zealand has managed to keep the virus at bay but is dealing with a small outbreak of the new strain which was imported by a traveller from the UK.

Authorities traced 88 people who may have come into contact with the infected person and are satisfied there hasn’t been community transmission. 

The country has has no Omicron cases in its community yet but has recorded 17 cases at its border quarantine facilities

Despite worries the new variant could take hold, the vast majority of the country was moved to a looser set of rules at midnight yesterday in time for NYE. 

Australia tried to suppress the virus in a similar fashion to its neighbours but has had less success keeping Omicron at bay.

New coronavirus infections have soared again in Australia to a record of more than 32,000, just days after surpassing 10,000 for the first time.

Varying levels of restrictions are in place around the country but millions are determined to ring in the New Year a couple of hours after New Zealand.

Dubai gave Sydney a run for its money with an extravagant fireworks display at the Buj Khalifa.

There was also a laser show at the nearby Dubai Fountain.

The sky over the Arabian Sea in Ras al Khaimah was lit up by hundreds of pyrotechnic drones spanning nearly three miles in length as part of a spectacular 12-minute show.

Thailand also ushered in the New Year with a vibrant fireworks display.

Celebrations were held in Phuket, Pattaya and Koh Phangan after authorities gave the green light for parties to go ahead so long as they complied with strict safety measures.

However, New Year’s Eve prayers which are typically held in Buddhist temples across the country, were moved online.

The festivities were much more muted over in India, where several states banned New Year’s Eve celebrations altogether in the face of the Omicron variant.

Those included Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai, while Kolkata went ahead with limited numbers.

The country has seen a sharp rise in cases over the past week sparking fears a third wave driven by the highly infectious new strain could be on the horizon.

There were 16,764 new cases and 220 deaths on Friday – the highest daily rise since October.

India became the epicentre for the virus when it experienced a devastating second wave in April and May this year, when new cases hit the 400,000 mark.

Global coronavirus infections hit a record high over the past seven-day period, with an average of just over one million cases detected a day worldwide between December 24 and 30.

That amounts of an increase of 100,000 on the previous week, according to analysis from Reuters.

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