FROM PAGE 12

Plans to allow crowds were scrapped amid a cluster of around 150 new infections that have seen travel to and from Sydney severely restricted.

“I think everybody is looking towards 2021 as a fresh beginning and a fresh start,” Karen Roberts, among the lucky few who were allowed past checkpoints around the area, told AFP at a bar nestled under the Sydney Opera House.

In Tokyo, residents faced the prospect a state of emergency being imposed after a daily record 1,300 new coronavirus infections were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Italy -- where shocking images of makeshift morgues and exhausted medics awoke the world to the severity of the crisis -- is on a nationwide lockdown until January 7 and a 10:00 pm curfew is in place.

From France to Latvia to Brazil, police and -- in some cases -- military personnel were being deployed to make sure night-time curfews or bans on large gatherings are enforced.

In hard-hit London, 74-year-old American singer-songwriter Patti Smith rang in the New Year with a tribute to National Health Service workers who have died from Covid-19, projected on the screen at Piccadilly Circus and streamed on YouTube.

SOCIAL GATHERING

Thousands were expected to attend a fireworks and a laser show in Dubai at the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, despite a slew of new cases.

All those attending the event -- whether at a public place, hotel or restaurant -- were required to wear masks and register with QR codes.

In Beirut, a city still reeling from the August 4 port explosion, authorities were also cutting loose.