Australia’s New Year’s Eve may be a damp squib as revellers make their own Covid decisions
Officially the new year parties in Australia’s largest cities will go ahead as planned, despite Covid case numbers exploding around the country.
But the night seems set to be much quieter than usual, as individuals dampen their plans, rethinking trips to the usual hotspots in Sydney and Melbourne, and cancelling larger parties or putting caps on numbers, amid warnings from epidemiologists that the night could become a super-spreader event.
There were 11,201 positive cases reported in New South Wales on Wednesday and 3,767 in Victoria, with South Australia and Queensland also both well over 1,000.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, has urged people to head out and enjoy the party and large crowds are expected to watch the famous fireworks in Sydney.
The City of Sydney said it could not predict how many people would turn out, but five of the six locations it manages were sold out, with about 17,000 tickets booked.
Tickets were still on sale on Wednesday for 25 other locations, with capacity for almost 87,000 people.
But many private businesses are shutting up shop.
One of Sydney’s biggest dance parties, Mad Racket, has cancelled its New Year’s Day event, which was originally set to draw a crowd of 400.
“I already had a lot of people I was giving refunds to because people are becoming uncomfortable,” co-founder Simon Caldwell said.
“The general vibe was safer to [shut down] than not do it. For people to wear masks indoors when they’re dancing, it’s not the vibe.”
He said the suppliers and venue had lost money, but that it was a safer option.
“It’s not about shaming anyone who is going ahead, everyone had to make their own call – which sort of made it more difficult in a way because it wasn’t clearcut.”
Neesha Chockalingam, 21, had planned to go dancing in Sydney for New Year’s Eve, but one person in her friendship group caught Covid last week, so now they were winding it back to a small party in the park.
“We made the decision last week when one of us got Covid,” Chockalingam said.
“It ruined our plans because we’re a close friend group, we didn’t want to do it without him.
“There’ll be probably not more than five to 10 people. It’ll be small scale.”
Melbourne revellers are also weighing up their options. Many are expected to flock to Flagstaff Gardens, Treasury Gardens, and Docklands to watch the fireworks, but some have had second thoughts. .
Savannah Benson lives in Canberra but had planned to spend New Year’s Eve with a friend in Melbourne. They made a pact – if Victoria’s case numbers hit 2,000 a day they would cancel the trip.
“It was less a concern about actually catching Covid because we both live in Canberra so the risk is there anyway, but more so uncertainty over what would happen if we caught it or became a close contact,” she said.
Elliot, who did not want his last name to be used, lives in Tamworth, NSW, with his young family.
They had planned to have a large party with extended family and friends, but cut it to an intimate gathering after seeing the case numbers rise.
“Now we are down to the microbubble of immediate family,” he said. “If it had not been this ridiculousness it would have been a much bigger family and friends party.”
He said it was hard to act in your own health interests when there was so much Covid in the state.
“I wish our commonwealth and state government would prioritise the health outcomes of its citizens rather than the economic outlook of the state.”
Prof Mary-Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist and adviser to the World Health Organization, said it would be “disappointing” if the two governments let their public celebrations go ahead.
“I would have expected the authorities to do leadership during hard times and that leadership means trying to save people from infection,” she said.
“They’ve had months to understand Australia has a super-spreader event this time of year. The same thing happened last year.
“If there is a circulating virus the same thing will happen next year. This is part of outbreak management. I am shocked at the lack of planning to slow down the outbreak.”
McLaws said there should also be caps on home visits.
“There need to be home capacity limits and, in fact, everyone going to a home should certainly be using a [rapid antigen test] if they all haven’t recently had a booster shot.”
She said parties should be moved outside and those attending should wear masks at all times.
“And if you can’t risk staying at home because you’re too unwell [in the coming weeks] to go to work, then maybe think about enjoying a celebration from home with your household. Think about it very carefully.”