End-of-year celebrations under the sign of the still omnipresent COVID-19

(Sydney) Celebrations canceled or severely restricted, music prohibited, New Years Eve limited to the family “bubble”: the world is preparing to begin a third year of pandemic in 2022, while contaminations are exploding, but only timid signs of hope appear.

The past twelve months have seen the arrival of a new US president, dreams of democracy fade from Afghanistan to Burma to Hong Kong and the first spectatorless Olympics.

But it is the pandemic that has once again ruled the daily lives of most of humanity. More than 5.4 million people have died since the virus was first identified in China in December 2019.

Countless others have been infected, subjected to lockdowns, curfews and a host of tests.

The emergence of the particularly contagious Omicron variant at the end of 2021 pushed the one million daily cases of coronavirus to exceed for the first time, according to an AFP count.

France became on Thursday evening the latest country to announce that Omicron was now in the majority on its territory, after “significant progress” in recent days.

Britain, the United States and even Australia, which had long been immune from the pandemic, are breaking records of new cases.

However, the distribution of vaccines to around 60% of the world’s population offers a glimmer of hope, although some poor countries still have limited access to them and a segment of the population remains reluctant to do so.

“Celebrate life”

From Seoul to San Francisco, New Years celebrations have again been canceled or reduced. But those in Rio de Janeiro, which usually bring together three million people on Copacabana beach, are maintained.

As in Times Square in New York, official events will be reduced, but large crowds are still expected.

“People only want one thing, to get out of their homes, to celebrate life after a pandemic that has forced everyone to lock themselves up,” said Francisco Rodrigues, 45, a server at Copacabana.

Some Brazilians are more dubious, in a country where the pandemic has killed nearly 619,000 people, the worst death toll in the world after that of the United States.

Sydney, Australia’s largest city, also maintained its fireworks display, which lit up the city’s iconic harbor. Unlike last year’s event without spectators, tens of thousands of revelers were expected on the docks even though, according to AFP journalists, the atmosphere in the city was quieter after dark than normal. .

“I’m just trying to focus on the positive things that happened this year rather than the negative,” observes Melinda Howard, 22, who studies medicine and waits outside the Opera House for the show to start.

Australian officials say their sudden turnaround – moving away from a ‘zero COVID-19’ strategy for one of ‘living with COVID-19’ – is based on high adult vaccination rates and a growing belief that Omicron is less deadly.

In the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is still planning a fireworks display at Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world with its 828 meters, and the emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah will once again try to break the world record for the largest fire in the world. ‘artifice.

“Tsunami of cases”

In South Africa, the first country to report the new variant at the end of November, the nighttime curfew in effect for 21 months and which had been reduced to times between midnight and 4 a.m. was lifted on the eve of the celebrations. for the New Year. Wearing a mask remains compulsory in public spaces and gatherings are still limited (1000 people outside, 2000 inside).

“Our hope is that this lifting will continue,” the Minister confided to the Presidency Mondli Gungubele on Friday, the day after the official announcement that “all indicators suggest that the country has probably passed the peak of the fourth wave” of the pandemic.

During the past year, many countries, in particular Western countries, have hesitated to reinstate the drastic measures of 2020, in order to avoid a new economic recession. But 2021 nonetheless saw an increase in protests against the restrictions in Europe and beyond, while a minority still hesitated to be vaccinated, raising fears about how the pandemic could end without the spread of disease. vaccination rate.

Experts hope that the year 2022 will mark a new, less deadly phase of the pandemic. But the World Health Organization foresees trying months ahead.

“I am very concerned that the more transmissible Omicron circulating at the same time as Delta is causing a tsunami of cases,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“This is and will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted caregivers, and health systems on the brink of collapse.”