This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other in most of the world, with pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget with made-for-TV fireworks displays or packing it in early since they could not toast the end of 2020 in the presence of friends or carousing strangers.

As the clock struck midnight across Asia and the South Pacific and the hour neared in Europe, Africa and the Americas, the New Year’s experience mirrored national responses to the virus itself. Some canceled or scaled back festivities, while others without active outbreaks were able to carry on like any other year.

Australia was among the first to ring in 2021 because of its proximity to the international date line. In past years 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbour to watch fireworks. This time, most watched on television as authorities urged residents to stay home to see the seven minutes of pyrotechnics that lit up the Sydney Harbor Bridge and its surroundings.

Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populated city, called off its annual fireworks show to discourage crowds. Officials in London made the same decision months ago. And while the ball was set to drop in New York's Times Square like always, police fenced off the site synonymous with New Year's Eve.