Sydney decided to press ahead with a firework display despite rising case numbers. Source: AAP
The world is preparing to usher in 2022 after another tumultuous and pandemic-ridden year capped by new restrictions, soaring case numbers, and a slight glimmer of hope for better times ahead.
The past 12 months saw a new US president, the first spectator-free Olympics, and dreams of democracy from Afghanistan to Myanmar and Hong Kong crushed by authoritarian regimes.
But it was the pandemic – now entering its third year – that again dominated life for most of humankind.
Countless more have been sickened – subjected to outbreaks, lockdowns, lock-ins and an alphabet spaghetti of PCR, LFT and RAT tests.
The year 2021 started with hope, as life-saving vaccines were rolled out to around 60 per cent of the world’s population, although many of its poor still have limited access, and some of its rich believe the jabs are part of some ill-defined plot.
As the year drew to a close, the emergence of the Omicron variant pushed the number of daily new COVID-19 cases past one million for the first time, according to an AFP tally.
France became the latest country to announce Omicron was now its dominant coronavirus strain on Friday.
In Britain, the United States, and even Australia – long a refuge from the pandemic – the variant’s prominence is driving record new cases.
From Seoul to San Francisco, New Year’s Eve celebrations have again been cancelled or curtailed as infections rise.
But in South Africa, the first country to report Omicron back in November, a midnight-to-4am curfew was lifted to allow festivities to go ahead.
Health officials there said that a dip in infections in the past week indicated the peak of the current wave had passed – crucially without a significant increase in deaths.
Australia’s largest city Sydney has also decided to press ahead with a firework display that will light up the city’s harbour, despite one of the world’s fastest-growing caseloads.
The country’s conservative government says its decision to abandon a “Covid-zero” approach in favour of “living with Covid” is based on high rates of adult vaccination and mounting evidence that Omicron is less deadly.
SBS
