Year of the pandemic: 50 images that tell the story of the coronavirus in 2020

The pain, loss, heroes and surrealness are captured in this collection from the past 12 months

A security guard stands outside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market on January 24, where the coronavirus was detected in Wuhan. AFP

Personnel in biological hazard suits await passengers evacuated from Wuhan on January 29. AFP

A visitor wearing a protective face mask at the Arab Health conference held at Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai on January 29, 2020. Pawan  Singh / The National

A woman wears a plastic water bottle with a cutout to cover her face, as she walks on a footbridge in Hong Kong on January 31, 2020, as a preventative measure following a virus outbreak which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan. AFP

A shopper wearing a protective facemask sorts items in her trolley as she stands next to bare supermarket shelves, usually stocked with toilet paper and kitchen rolls, in Hong Kong on February 6, 2020. AFP

A drawing of the late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang with flower bouquets at the Houhu Branch of Wuhan Central Hospital in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province, February 7, 2020. Li, a doctor who was punished after raising the alarm about the new coronavirus, died on February 7 after being infected by the pathogen. AFP

Liu Yujia, the first person in the UAE to recover from coronavirus is congratulated by Consul General Li Xuhang of China and Dr Hussein Al Rand, assistant undersecretary of the Ministry of Health and Prevention, on February 9, 2020. Wam

Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi wipes the sweat off his face, during a press conference with the Islamic republic's government spokesman Ali Rabiei in the capital Tehran on February 24, 2020. Iran's deputy health minister confirmed on February 25, that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. AFP

A nurse wearing protective mask and gear comforts another as they change shifts on March 13, 2020 at the Cremona hospital, southeast of Milan, Lombardy, during the country's lockdown. AFP

People clap from balconies in a show of appreciation for health care workers in Mumbai, India, on March 22, 2020. AP Photo

Gonzaga Yiga, a 49-year-old community chairperson, appeals to residents through a speaker from the tallest building of the area in morning and evening, on how to curb the coronavirus, in Kampala, Uganda, on March 24, 2020. AFP

Sanitation workers from Tadweer in formation on the first day of the UAE cleaning campaign on March 27, 2020. Victor Besa / The National

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson on a screen as he remotely chairs the morning coronavirus meeting by video link, in Downing Street in central London, on March 28, 2020. The two men leading Britain's fight against the coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Health Secretary Matt Hancock, both announced they had tested positive. AFP

A South African policeman points his pump rifle to disperse a crowd of shoppers in Yeoville, Johannesburg, on March 28, 2020 while trying to enforce a safety distance outside a supermarket. AFP

Police inspector Rajesh Babu wearing a coronavirus-themed helmet speaks to a family on a motorbike at a checkpoint during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown in Chennai, India on March 28, 2020. AFP

The new screening drive through at Zayed Sports City, Abu Dhabi, on March 29, 2020. Chris Whiteoak / The National

An inhabitant of the residence Maison Blanche, composed of 226 mostly unsanitary dwellings, collects food offered by neighbours from his balcony, using a rope made with blankets, on March 31, 2020, in Marseille, southern France. AFP

Bodies are moved to a refrigeration truck serving as a temporary morgue at Wyckoff Hospital in the Borough of Brooklyn on April 6, 2020 in New York. AFP

Health workers cry during a memorial for their co-worker Esteban, a nurse who died, at the Severo Ochoa Hospital in Leganes in Leganes, Spain, on April 10, 2020. AP Photo

A Palestinian mother entertains her children with makeshift masks made of cabbage as she cooks in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on April 16, 2020. AFP

Health care workers stand in the street in counter-protest to hundreds of people who gathered at the State Capitol to demand the stay-at-home order be lifted in Denver, Colorado, US. April 19, 2020. Reuters

Members of the NYPD Honor Guard, wearing masks, prepare for the funeral of Traffic Section Commander Mohammed Chowdhury in New York, on April 22, 2020. AP Photo

A sign indicates that Bondi Beach is closed as a surfer arrives for the 7am opening in Sydney on April 28, 2020. AP Photo

The iconic Christ the Redeemer statue is lit up as if wearing a protective mask and with a slogan that reads in Portuguese: "Mask saves," in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 3, 2020. AP Photo

A medical worker takes a swab from a resident during home visits in Wuhan, the epicentre of China's coronavirus outbreak, in the central Hubei province, on May 14, 2020. AP

Guests watch the "Trolls World Tour" movie in the rain at the Four Brothers Drive In Theatre on May 15, 2020, in Amenia, NY. AP Photo

People are seen practising social distancing in white circles in Domino Park, on May 17, 2020 the in Brooklyn borough of New York City. AFP

View of the Intensive Care Unit treating coronavirus patients in the Gilberto Novaes Hospital in Manaus, Brazil, on May 20, 2020. AFP

Rectangles designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging social distancing are drawn in a city-sanctioned homeless encampment at San Francisco's Civic Centre on May 21, 2020. AP Photo

Government health workers visit riverside communities of the municipality of Melgaco to test them for coronavirus infections in the Marajoara region, located in the southwest of the island of Marajo, at the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Para, Brazil, on May 23, 2020. AFP

People attend a rave in boats of all sizes to give support to Berlin's world renowned dance clubs which were struggling due to the pandemic on the Landwehr canal on May 31, 2020 in Berlin's Kreuzberg district. AFP

Children run down a street past an informational mural warning people about the dangers of coronavirus in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya on Wednesday, June 3, 2020. AP Photo

A man on a balcony watches the second-division game between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete in Madrid, Spain, on June 10, 2020. AP Photo

Irish Paralympic hopeful Leo Hynes, who is legally blind, trains in his home-made training pool in his front garden at home in Tuam, Co Galway, west Ireland, on June 18, 2020. AFP

The Uceli Quartet perform for an audience made of plants during a concert created by Spanish artist Eugenio Ampudia and that would be later streamed to mark the reopening of the Liceu Grand Theatre in Barcelona on June 22, 2020. AFP

Agustina Canamero, 81, and Pascual Perez, 84, hug and kiss through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, on June 22, 2020. AP Photo

Romelia Navarro, 64, weeps while hugging her husband, Antonio, in his final moments in a Covid-19 unit at St Jude Medical Centre in Fullerton, California, on July 31, 2020. AP Photo

Muslim pilgrims circumambulating around the Kaaba at the centre of the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Makkah, on August 2, 2020. AFP

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro puts on a mask during the inauguration of the new General Abreu civic-military school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 14, 2020. AP Photo

The first day back at school at Gems Wellington Academy in Al Khail, Duba on August 30, 2020. Antonie Robertson / The National

An Iraqi family mourns around the coffin of a relative, who died of the coronavirus, during a reburial ceremony at the vast Wadi al-Salam cemetery in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on September 11, 2020. AFP

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed,, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE, as he virtually addresses the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, on September 29, 2020, in New York. AFP

Medical workers celebrate as the last three patients are released from a field hospital at the National Stadium Mane Garrincha, after recuperating from Covid-19, in Brasilia, Brazil, on October 15, 2020. AP Photo

A woman speaks affectionately to a horse named "Tony" at the Maria Vieira Bazani nursing home in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 22, 2020. AP Photo

People wear face masks while watching the marine life at Ripley's Aquarium of Canada in Toronto, on October 28, 2020. AP

A technician sprays disinfectant as mourners pray over the body of a person who died, at the Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery on the outskirts of the Iranian capital, Tehran on November 1, 2020. AP Photo

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Ruler of Dubai, receives the Sinopharm vaccine on November 3, 2020. Courtesy: Dubai Media Office

People dance at a nightclub, almost a year after the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on December 12, 2020. Reuters

Medical workers of the Covid-19 intensive care unit at the Santo Stefano hospital in Prato, near Florence, Tuscany, pose wearing their PPE with photos of themselves printed on it, on December 17, 2020 at the hospital in Prato. AFP

D-Day veteran and Chelsea Pensioner Bob James Sullivan, 98, a resident at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, is applauded by staff after receiving an injection of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from Pippa Nightingale, Chief Nurse at the nearby Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on December 23, 2020. Chelsea Pensioners are all former soldiers of the British Army over the age of 65, who reside at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, founded by King Charles II in 1682, and wear a uniform which includes a scarlet coat. Getty Images

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