- The city of Wuhan, where the first cases of coronavirus have ever been reported, celebrated New Year’s Eve in style.
- On New Year’s Eve, crowds gathered for the midnight count, enjoyed a fair, and prayed in Buddhist temples.
- In contrast, many cities worldwide had to cancel the annual celebrations to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Photos of Paris, London, New York, Berlin and Milan show deserted squares where there would have been crowds of thousands in earlier years.
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In Wuhan, China, thousands of people gathered on the streets to celebrate the new year.
The city was the ground zero of the coronavirus pandemic and reported the first COVID-19 group exactly a year ago, on December 31, 2019.
People hold balloons as they gather to celebrate the coming of the new year, following the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19), in Wuhan, China, 31 December 2020
REUTERS / Tingshu Wang
Since May, it has been free of the virus after a strictly enforced 76-day closure of its 11 million citizens.
Freed from the threat of COVID-19 and life became almost normal for Wuhan residents, images from the city showed they could celebrate the new year by hitting the streets to greet the new year.
The scenes were the opposite of what could be observed in much of the rest of the world, where public health emergencies banished the ordinary crowds in the world’s most famous cities.
In New York, Times Square was abandoned for the first time since 1907 to see the iconic ball fall, Mail Online reports.
Confetti flies around the ball and countdown clock in Times Square during the virtual New Year’s Eve event after the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, USA, on January 1, 2021.
REUTERS / Jeenah Moon
This week marked the deadliest day in the United States since the coronavirus pandemic, with a record-breaking number of hospitalizations predicting darker days.
According to data from The Covid Tracking Project, states in the US reported more than 3900 deaths on Wednesday and more than 125 000 hospitalizations.
London has canceled its traditional fireworks display near the Houses of Parliament.
Where there were usually crowds, the police patrolled to break up unauthorized gatherings:
Police are patrolling the banks of the London River Thames on 31 December 2020. The usual crowd for New Year’s Eve was absent.
Getty Images
A replacement fireworks and light show took place in east London across the Millennium Dome:
A fireworks display over the Millennium Dome in East London has replaced the traditional show in Westminster.
Getty Images
Germany also had tough restrictions. Performers played in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, but with no one to watch them:
A festive concert in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin had no audience on December 31, 2020, due to coronavirus restrictions.
Getty Images
And in Cologne, signs warned everyone to see in front of his Gothic cathedral in the new year:
A sign warning crowds from the imposing cathedral in Cologne, Germany, on December 31, 2020.
Getty Images
Paris instituted a curfew from 8pm to ensure there were no crowds around the Eiffel Tower:
A view of the Champ de Mars in Paris on 31 December 2020, with the Eiffel Tower in view. French authorities introduced the curfew rule from 20:00
Getty Images
Milan, Italy, where the coronavirus first took off in a major Western city, also has curfews to keep crowds away:
The usually packed Piazza Duomo in Milan, Italy, where a curfew took place at 22:00 on 31 December 2020.
Getty Images
Taksim Square in Istanbul is also deserted:
An abandoned Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, where on 31 December 2020 there was a curfew.
Getty Images
A year has passed since the World Health Organization announced the first confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.
Yet the origin of the virus and the true timeline of its spread worldwide is a mystery. An increasing amount of evidence now indicates that it spread months before the first cases drew worldwide attention in Wuhan, China.
A study by Milan’s National Cancer Institute found that four of the cases of coronavirus in Italy date from October 2019.
Research from China has shown that people in Wuhan became ill in November and early December: An analysis, based on satellite images of Wuhan hospitals and online searches for COVID-19 symptoms in the area, suggests that the virus is already so late there began to circulate. summer.