See countries that have already left 2020 behind, now in 2021

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For these countries, 2020 has already passed into history. They have put behind them a year of disease, death and unparalleled restrictions on normal life.

Pacific islands were the first to leave 2020 behind, followed by New Zealand and parts of Australia and Russia.

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 Kiribati and Samoa were the first to cross the threshold of 2021 at 10am GMT, with the last Pacific islands set to follow them 26 hours later.

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Samoa and parts of Kiribati are in the world’s farthest forward time zone, which is 14 hours ahead of UTC, putting them at the same time as Hawaii except the date is one day ahead.

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This means that when it turned Friday in Samoa and Kiribati, it was still Wednesday in places like American Samoa.

New Zealand’s Chatham Islands and its nearly 700 people hit midnight just 15 minutes after Samoa and Kiritimati, making it the second-earliest place on Earth.

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The first major city to welcome the new year is Auckland in New Zealand at 1100 GMT (6 a.m. ET), along with Fiji, Tonga, and parts of Antarctica.

Although the Pacific islands were spared the worst ravages of the pandemic, border restrictions, curfews and lockdowns meant this New Year’s Eve was still a little different.

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In Sydney, fireworks lit up the glittering harbour with a dazzling display at midnight, but few spectators were there to watch in person.

This is happening as the rest of the planet set to cross the invisible threshold in the coming hours.

Only 25 people have ever died of COVID-19 in New Zealand, hence   restrictions are virtually non-existent.

Daily Mail reports that crowds of partygoers packed into Auckland streets for midnight fireworks.

In Australia, which has also fended off the worst of the pandemic, life was normal enough for some revellers to gather in Melbourne and Sydney – where the harbour bridge fireworks were as spectacular as ever.

But for most of the world’s seven billion people, a grinding year is ending with typically muted festivities, with fireworks, pyre burnings and live performances set to be watched from home or cancelled altogether.

 

 

 

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