Blue and gold fireworks soared into the sky above the Sydney Opera House as they do every year, but the harbor below was a ghost town, a fittingly creepy send-off for a year that will not be missed.
No light show will illuminate Beijing from the top of the TV tower. The lions of London's Trafalgar Square will be barricaded off, as will the Red Square in Moscow. In Rome, crowds will not assemble in St Peter's Square, the Pope will lead no Mass, and revelers will not make their yearly dive into the Tiber.
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The New Year's Eve ball was to drop on Broadway. But in place of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers packed shoulder-to-shoulder into Times Square, the audience will be a small pre-selected group of nurses, doctors and other key workers, their families kept six feet apart in socially distanced pens.
With more than 1.7 million people dead and 82 million infected around the globe since last New Year's Eve this year's end is like none other in memory.
"I think I am not exaggerating when I say: never in the last 15 years have we found the old year so heavy," said Angela Merkel, in her 16th New Year's Eve address as German chancellor. "And never have we, despite all the worries and some skepticism, looked forward to the new one with so much hope.
Germany has banned the sale of fireworks to discourage crowds. Authorities in Berlin said police would "punish violators consistently".
In the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic originated a year ago, thousands were expected to gather at popular landmarks across the city center for the countdown to 2021. Some said they were being cautious, but weren't particularly worried.
In Australia, where the Sydney Opera House fireworks are televised around the world as the first big visual display of the New Year, movement has been restricted, gatherings banned and internal borders shut. Most people were barred from coming to Sydney's downtown on Thursday night.
"What a hell of a year it's been," said Gladys Berejiklian from Australia. "Hopefully 2021 will be easier on all of us."
In Madrid's usually teeming Puerta del Sol square, there will be no screaming revelers delightedly stuffing grapes into their mouths - one for every stroke of midnight, according to tradition. Spain's midnight curfew has been extended to 1:30 am for the night, but most people are expected to stay at home.
In Britain, where a highly contagious variant of the virus is rampaging and most people are under strict restrictions, official billboards instruct the public to "see in the New Year safely at home". Barriers were erected in public places such as London's Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.
Russian authorities stopped people gathering on Red Square. Bars and restaurants were to shut before midnight, but firework displays would go ahead.
In Italy, bars, restaurants and most shops were closed, and a curfew imposed for New Year's Eve at 10 pm. Pope Francis canceled plans to lead New Year's Eve and New Year's Day services because of a flare-up of his sciatica condition, the Vatican said.
In France, where a night curfew will also be in force, no more than six adults are allowed to gather around the dinner table.
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