New Zealand kicked off the muted New Year's Eve celebrations around the world this year with a light show instead of the usual fireworks.
Auckland shifted into orange on the day before New Year's Eve despite there being concern around a possible Omicron outbreak in the community.
UK-based DJ Dimension, AKA Robert Etheridge, confirmed in an Instagram post he tested positive for Omicron, making him New Zealand's first community case of the fast-spreading COVID-19 variant.
The Ministry of Health said he arrived on a flight from the UK on December 16 and after three negative test results in managed isolation, was allowed to complete his final three days in self-isolation.
But the Ministry said he didn't wait for his negative day nine test result before leaving self-isolation, as required, and went on to visit multiple venues including a nightclub.
Auckland Harbour Bridge, Sky Tower and Auckland War Memorial Museum were lit up from 9pm.
Traditional fireworks displays were also cancelled in Wellington but the Tūrama 2020 light sculpture lit up the city centre.
Police said Kiwis were largely well behaved across the country and peple saw the New Year safely.
"By and large New Zealanders rang in the New Year safely," says Deputy Commissioner Glenn Dunbier.
"There were of course a couple of hotspots around the motu, however most people we saw out and about had a good time and stayed safe."
Two people were arrested in Riversdale for disorderly behaviour, and four in Tauranga for the same offence.
Fifteen arrests were made and 114 infringement notices were issued in Whangamata, where officers took a zero tolerance approach following the events of last year.
"We’re pleased to see people taking steps to get home safely, and looking out for each other," says Deputy Commissioner Dunbier.
Sydney was one place where the New Year charged in with something like full swagger, as spectacular fireworks glittered in the harbour below the Opera House.
But many other landmark cities were forgoing pyrotechnics as midnight rolled across the globe, with displays called off at Paris's Arc de Triomphe, London's riverside and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
The golden ball is due to drop at New York's Times Square, but the crowd shouting out the countdown of the year's exit would be a quarter the usual size, masked up, socially distanced and with vaccine papers in hand.
New York's Times Square celebration, with just 15,000 spectators instead of the usual 55,000 or so, will be a big upgrade from last year's audience of a few dozen. But with New York State reporting more than 74,000 cases on Thursday and 22% of tests coming back positive, critics wondered whether the celebrations should go ahead at all.
Still, South Africa, which first raised the alarm about the new fast-spreading coronavirus variant, gave the world one of the last big good surprises of the year, becoming the first country to declare its Omicron wave had crested - and with no huge surge in deaths. The abrupt lifting of a night time curfew meant celebrations could ring in 2022.
