Thousands across Australia and New Zealand yesterday honored their countries’ military personnel in private ceremonies held in driveways and on balconies, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced most traditional ANZAC Day memorials to be canceled for the first time in decades.
Crowds typically gather at dawn services on April 25 to commemorate the bloody battle on the Gallipoli Peninsula in today’s Turkey during World War I, which in the past few decades has become one of the most important national occasions in Australia and New Zealand.
However, with public gatherings banned to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, people were asked to remember the day privately.
Photo: AFP
“Our remembrances today, small, quiet and homely, will be,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in his address.
He was one of just a handful of people allowed to attend a ceremony at the country’s national war memorial in Canberra.
“Though our streets were empty, the returning veterans were not forgotten,” Morrison said. “We have never forgotten them, and we never will.”
Australia and New Zealand managed to curb coronavirus infections before the pandemic strained their public health systems, but officials of the two sparsely populated Pacific neighbors co ntinue to worry.
New Zealand would next week ease some of the world’s strictest lockdown measures taken to tackle the pandemic, while Australia’s strict social distancing rules remain in place.
In remembrances dubbed “stand at dawn,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stood on her driveway along with her fiance and his father.
“This year a new threat faces all nations as the impact of the coronavirus deepens worldwide,” Ardern said in an e-mailed statement. “As we face these significant challenges, we remember the courage of those who have served in the name of peace and justice.”
In Australia, people also flocked to beaches to light candles and honor the country’s military, who have fought in many worldwide conflicts.
Australia reported 20 new coronavirus cases yesterday, which took its total to 6,687, according to Australian Department of Health data. There have been 80 deaths.
In New Zealand, there were three new confirmed cases, bringing the total of infections to 1,117. Eighteen people have died, government data showed.
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