In the Chinese city of Wuhan, once the world’s epicenter of the COIVD-19 outbreak, large crowds took to the streets to ring in the new year.
Photos of the celebrations show how revelers wear masks and have little or no social distance when they release balloons into the air at the Hankow Customs House building – a popular New Year’s Eve in Wuhan, according to Reuters.
Police were seen trying to control the crowd and even encouraged people without masks to put on one if they wanted to continue the celebration, the office said.
The celebrations come a year after the World Health Organization said it had first received a warning about a group of pneumonia cases in Wuhan – which later became the world’s first coronavirus outbreak.
WHO experts are expected to meet in China in January to investigate where the virus first originated.
Some countries like France and Spain have called in the new year with curfew rules imposed on the public. In Australia and New Zealand, people celebrated 2021 as usual before the pandemic.
Back in New York, Times Square was a ghost town where police cordoned off the area while people were prepared to watch the famous ball fall from the house.