© (Getty Images)WUHAN, CHINA - JUNE 30: (CHINA OUT) A boy wearing a face mask swims with a rubber ring in a flooded Jiangtan park caused by heavy rains along the Yangtze river on June 30, 2020 in Wuhan, China. Since June 13, 2020 the response level of public health emergencies in Hubei Province has been reduced to level 3. Wuhan's health commission said that the city had no asymptomatic cases as of June 15, and there are no more close contacts under medical observation.(Photo by Getty Images)
A year has passed since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March, 11, 2020. A virus not visible to the human eye has left its mark in every corner of the world. No single image can define the loss and heartache of millions of global citizens, but photojournalists were there to document the times as best they could. From the exhaustion on the faces of frontline medical workers to vacant streets once bustling with life, here is a look back at photo essays published by U.S. News photo editors from the past year. When seen collectively, these galleries stitch together a year unlike any other.
In January of 2020, empty streets, protective masks and makeshift hospital beds became the new normal in Wuhan, a metropolis usually bustling with more people than New York City. Chinese authorities suspended flights, trains and public transportation, preventing locals from leaving the area, and placing a city of 11 million people under lockdown. The mass quarantine invokes surreal scenes and a grim forecast.
Photojournalist Krisanne Johnson documented New Yorkers in early March of 2020, during moments of isolation as a climate of uncertainty and tension hung over the city that never sleeps.
For millions of Italians, and millions more around the globe, the confines of home became the new reality in fighting the spread of the coronavirus. Italian photojournalist Camila Ferrari offered a visual diary of intimacy within isolation.
Around the world, we saw doctors, nurses and medical staff on the front lines in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the pandemic raged, global citizens found new ways of socializing and supporting each other. From dance classes to church services, the screen took center stage.
In April of 2020, photographer John Moore captured behind the scene moments of medical workers providing emergency services to patients with COVID-19 symptoms in New York City and surrounding areas.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted undocumented communities that often lack unemployment protections, health insurance and at times, fear deportation.
Aerial views showed startlingly desolate landscapes and revealed the scale of the pandemic.
With devastating death tolls, COVID-19 altered the rituals of mourning loved ones.
In recognition of May Day in 2020, these portraits celebrated essential workers around the globe.
In May 2020, of the 10 counties with the highest death rates per capita in America, half were in rural southwest Georgia, where there are no packed apartment buildings or subways. And where you could see ambulances rushing along country roads, just fields and farms in either direction, carrying COVID-19 patients to the nearest hospital, which for some is an hour away.
In January of 2021, as new variants of the virus emerged, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and other vaccines led a historic global immunization rollout, offering hope.
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