World to ring in New Year under Covid cloud

GBNEWS24DESK//

The world prepared on Friday 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, reports AFP.

The eventful last 12 months saw a new US president and a new Adele album, the first spectator-free Olympics, and dreams of democracy from Afghanistan to Myanmar to Hong Kong crushed by authoritarian regimes.

But it was the pandemic, now entering its third year, that again dominated life for most of humankind.

Over 5.4 million people have died since the coronavirus was first reported in central China in December 2019.

Countless more have been sickened — subjected to outbreaks, lockdowns, lock-ins and an alphabet spaghetti of PCR, LFT and RAT tests.

Hope came as life-saving vaccines were rolled out to around 60% 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.

But as 2021 drew to a close, the emergence of the Omicron variant pushed the number of daily new Covid cases past one million for the first time, according to an AFP tally.

Britain, the United States, and even Australia — long a refuge from the pandemic — are breaking records for new cases.