People welcome 2022: The arrival of the third year of the pandemic with hope and anticipation
Unraveling the “tangle” of last year, Greece was found to be suffering a lot because three catalytic agents.
The first factor, was the dynamic composition of the Covid pandemic 19. Despite the hope created by the vaccine against the pandemic and despite the strengthening of the vaccination program, the new variants of the virus, especially Delta and Omicron, were repeatedly severely tested in the National Health System . .
However, vaccination remains a powerful weapon and the President of the Republic refers to it, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, in its New Year’s message to the citizens.
New Year with the coronavirus “galloping”
At the same time, no one can ignore the fact that in 2021, tens of thousands of our fellow human beings fell ill, others were found intubated in an ICU hospital, while there were those who lost the battle with the disease. And no matter how much we hear and read the announcements of EODY every day, in the reports that describe numbers and statistics, nothing should make us forget that behind these numbers are people.
In the sorrows of the new year, Greece counts over 40,000 new cases daily, while strict measures are already in place to reduce mobility leading to further spread of the disease.
The second factor, she was huge ecological and humanitarian disaster suffered by the country last summer due to fires.
Attica, Northern Evia and the Peloponnese experienced the worst consequences of the fire: Houses and properties were reduced to ashes, large areas of forest were “erased” from the map, while damage to the domestic ecosystem, flora and fauna was incalculable.
The third factor, which seems to continue to affect the lives of citizens and 2022 is the precision wave triggered in the last months of 2021 by the energy crisis. Rise in commodity prices, “inflated” electricity bills but also in natural gas, more expensive fuels, have come to burden even more households and businesses.
At first glance, the first and third factors are interrelated. But all three compose an “explosive” mixture with a particularly serious impact on psychology and especially on mental health of people.
The Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also acknowledged this in his New Year’s message, saying characteristically:
“I feel the fatigue and anxiety that overshadows everyone’s daily life. But I also know well the abilities of our people. Thanks to them, in the past year, the losses that hit us, did not defeat us “.
Under the great difficulties we are still experiencing, the big bet isnot to lose our humanity. In the sorrows of 2022 we do not simply need hope, we do not simply need to smile: It is now insurmountable need to remember how we do not live and not just how to survive.
From February 26, 2020, when the “zero case” was announced in our country, until today, when these words are written, the country is under a very special tough health test. And a phrase that sounds like no other in the mouths and minds of each of us is one: “Until when?».
For this need to change something that the president of SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance, speaks in his New Year’s message to the citizens, Alexis Tsipras.
We need to stop being afraid, we need to believe and hope for a better time and mainly to take our lives back. Now, more than ever.
The reception of 2022 in the world
The world is entering the third year of the pandemic in 2022, with the cases having skyrocketed, but also with some signs of hope fading. In most countries celebrations were canceled, music was banned and New Year’s Eve was limited to a close family circle.
The islands Kiribati, in Peaceful, was the first country in the world to welcome the new year, exactly at 12 noon, Greek time.
In the Sydney, the self-proclaimed “world capital of the New Year”, a small crowd had gathered at the port to watch the impressive, as every year, fireworks display. A few thousand were able to attend this year, although usually the crowd exceeds 1 million. “I try to focus on the positive things that happened, instead of the negatives,” said Melinda Howard, a 22-year-old medical student who watched the show outside the Opera House.
In United Arab Emirates, Dubai is also planning a fireworks show in Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. The Emirates will try again this year to break the record for the largest spectacle of fireworks of all time.
But from Seoul until San Francisco, the celebrations were very limited or, in some cases, did not take place at all. Due to the Omicron variant, the New Year entered silently, without fireworks, in Auckland, New Zealand.
In South Korea, the traditional bell ringing at midnight was canceled, for the second consecutive year. In Tokyo, in the Shibuya district, the celebrations were canceled and the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, urged his compatriots to wear masks and reduce the number of party guests.
THE China, the country where cases of the new coronavirus were detected for the first time, at the end of 2019, remains on high alert. The city of Xi’an has been put in a lockdown and celebrations in other cities are taking place.
in Jakarta In Indonesia, police blocked 11 streets where large crowds usually gather for the New Year. Malaysia has banned rallies and dismantled the body of fireworks at the Petronas Twin Towers.
CNN Greece wishes all its readers a good and creative year with health.