The coronavirus infected almost 84 million people in a year that’s changed the world, likely forever.

As many struggled to find some semblance of normalcy, most realised that this now looked markedly different, with mask wearing, social distancing and sanisiting becoming part of our daily routine.

With that in mind, the world collectively looks forward to the New Year, and the promise of better as more vaccines continue to be produced, disseminated and injected.

However, with inoculation an ongoing process for much of the foreseeable future, the typical ringing in of the New Year looked very different this time around.

Here are some pictures of how people ushered in 2021:

Fireworks and drones illuminate the night sky over London as they form a light display as London’s normal New Year’s Eve fireworks display was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic Thursday Dec. 31, 2020. (Victoria Jones/PA via AP)

Fireworks light the sky during the New Year’s celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, early Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. Germany is entering 2021 in a lockdown that appears certain to be extended beyond its current Jan. 10 end date, with new coronavirus cases and deaths related to COVID-19 remaining at worryingly high levels. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

A person stops to take a picture of the sun setting behind the San Francisco skyline as seen from Grizzly Peak Boulevard in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)

A fireworks display decorates the night sky to celebrate the New Year, as crowds of people look on, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, early Friday, Jan., 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

Fireworks explode over the Kremlin and almost empty Red Square during New Year’s celebrations with the Spasskaya Tower during New Year celebrations, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Police officers stand along a mostly empty Seventh Avenue during what would normally be a Times Square packed with people in New York, late Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020, as celebrations have been truncated this New Year’s Eve due to the ongoing pandemic. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

The iconic Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up during a New Year’s Eve celebration in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)