Clippings from the year of the coronavirus pandemic

from the
Reuters archives

Clippings from the longest year

FROM THE REUTERS

ARCHIVES

2020

So much has happened this year – the global pandemic, of course, but also political chaos, freak weather and wildfires, and protests everywhere.

 

What we went through depended so much on who we are and where we live. In a year where healthcare workers were heroes every day, some of us spent our spare time playing Animal Crossing. Whether we experienced tragedy or economic hardship, depression or just plain listlessness could seem so random and turn quickly from one to the other. So how do we capture the year of COVID-19?

 

The Reuters graphics team dug through our archives of photos, articles, and other artifacts to tell the only story we could: a messy one, full of contrasts. Scraps of hope, loss, ingenuity, activism and so many other things we reported on this year.

 

We hope this scrapbook gives a sense of what we shared around the globe, if at different times and in countries we couldn’t visit this year.

PUBLISHED

Dec. 22 2020

Designed and developed by

Minami Funakoshi, Samuel Granados, and Ally J. Levine

Edited by

Jon McClure and Tiffany Wu

Photo credits

JAN.

New Year’s in Hong Kong/Navesh Chitrakar; in Santiago, Chile/Pablo Sanhueza; in New York, U.S./Amr Alfiky; Brexit celebration in London, Britain/Henry Nicholls; Worker in a protective suit at the closed seafood market in Wuhan, China/Stringer

FEB.

Makeshift memorial for the Chinese doctor Li Wenliang in Wuhan, China/Stringer, Feb. 7

MARCH

Ripped Italian flag hanging outside a building in San Fiorano, Italy/Marzio Toniolo via REUTERS; An edition of the newspaper L’Eco di Bergamo in which ten pages of obituaries have been published due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Bergamo, Italy/Flavio Lo Scalzo, May 12; Migrant workers crowd up outside a bus station as they wait to board buses to return to their villages in Ghaziabad, India/Anushree Fadnavis; Pigeons roam around Piazza Duomo in Milan, Italy/Guglielmo Mangiapane

Empty beach in Lima, Peru/Sebastian Castaneda; Ballet dancer and performer Ashlee Montague at the empty Times Square in New York, U.S./Andrew Kelly; Empty National Mall in Washington D.C., U.S./Carlos Barria; Cherry blossoms in Ueno park before and after the Tokyo governor urged residents to stay indoors in Tokyo, Japan/Issei Kato

APRIL

Newborn baby in Hanoi, Vietnam/Nguyen Huy Kham, April 13; Zoom happy hour in New York, U.S/Caitlin Ochs; People look out the windows in Rome, Italy/Yara Nardi; A woman sings from her balcony in Rome, Italy/Alberto Lingria; Yoga teacher in Casablanca, Morocco/Youssef Boudlal; Amur the Siberian tiger at Zoo Zurich, Switzerland/Arnd Wiegmann; Free toilet paper sign in Chalfont St Giles, Britain/Paul Childs

APRIL

Recipe for sourdough bread handwritten by Mats Haraldsson, the father of Reuters photographer Nora Savosnick, in Oslo, Norway/Nora Savosnick; Homemade seeded sourdough loaf in London, Britain/Dylan Martinez; Cow moves past circles drawn on a road for people to maintain safe distance in Chennai, India/P. Ravikumar; Variety of markers used to mark social distancing in cities around the world/Reuters Photographers; Marie Lou Belenyesi, 4, and Paolo Belenyesi, 9, holding pictures they drew during the pandemic, in Brussels, Belgium/Johanna Geron; Li Congchen, 11, holding a picture he drew during the pandemic, in Beijing, China/Tingshu Wang; Other social-distancing themed drawings by children at Grove Road Primary School, in Tring, Britain/Eddie Keogh, May 28

MAY

People stand in a queue to receive food aid at the Itireleng informal settlement, near Laudium suburb in Pretoria, South Africa/Siphiwe Sibeko; People exercising at the balconies in Tangerang, Indonesia/Willy Kurniawan; Black Lives Matter protest in Washington D.C., U.S./Jim Bourg; in Brooklyn, New York/Caitlin Ochs; Protest murals designed by volunteers and mural artists of the P.A.I.N.T.S Institute in Washington D.C., U.S/Katanga Johnson; Breonna Taylor mural in Washington D.C., U.S./Cheriss May; Black Trans Lives Matter rally in New York, U.S./Stephanie Keith; Protests in Oxford, Britain/Hannah McKay; Maiya Hartman paints a mural as part of events to mark Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in Texas, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S./Eric Miller

George Floyd mural in Stains, France/Benoit Tessier; A viola professor teaches via Zoom, in Buenos Aires, Argentina/Agustin Marcarian; Everton fan Speedo Mick watches the Premier League Everton v Liverpool match at home, in London, Britain/Matthew Childs; A woman conducts a virtual yoga session in Ahmedabad, India/Amit Dave

JULY

People doing outdoor yoga in socially distant bubbles, in Toronto, Canada/Carlos Osorio; Switzerland’s Lea Sprunger in action during the 300m Hurdles during the Diamond League at the Letzigrund Stadium, Zurich, Switzerland/Arnd Wiegmann; Personal trainer Flo Dowler leads an outdoor workout fitness class in London, Britain/Kevin Coombs

AUG.

People at a pool party in Wuhan, China/Stringer, provided by a third party; Demonstrators march during a protest against the German government’s coronavirus restrictions, in Berlin, Germany/Fabrizio Bensch; Woman holding a sign saying “Big brother is masking you”, in Berlin, Germany/Axel Schmidt, Aug. 29; Demonstrator with a metallic mesh in front of his face, in Berlin, Germany/Axel Schmidt, Aug. 29; Demonstrator wearing underwear to cover his face in Berlin, Germany/Axel Schmidt, Aug. 29; Demonstrator wearing a mask that has been cut out, in Berlin, Germany/Axel Schmidt, Aug. 29; Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro during the opening of the forum ‘Control in the Fight against Corruption 2020’ in Brasilia, Brazil/Ueslei Marcelino, Dec. 9

SEPT.

A man works in a laboratory of Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, in Beijing, China/Thomas Peter

Window with a “Covid Positive” sign, in Manchester, Britain/Phil Noble; Students get their temperature checked before entering a class, in Peshawar, Pakistan/Fayaz Aziz; Pro-democracy protesters march during an anti-government protest, in Bangkok, Thailand/Athit Perawongmetha; A protester holds a sign reading “Freedom over fear” during a pro-democracy protest in Bangkok, Thailand/Chalinee Thirasupa; Anurak Jeantawanich, a Thai activist, pushes against police officers during an anti-government protest in Bangkok, Thailand/Jorge Silva

OCT.

People wearing personal protective equipment sanitise a “pandal” or a temporary platform for the Durga Puja festival, in Kolkata, India/Rupak De Chowdhuri; Movie theatre with seats marked for social distancing in Jakarta, Indonesia/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana; People at a Halloween-themed event at an amusement park in Wuhan, China/Stringer; Socially distant voting line in Oklahoma, U.S./Nick Oxford

U.S. President Donald Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania, U.S./Carlos Barria; Then-U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks during a drive-in campaign event in Pennsylvania, U.S./Kevin Lamarque

NOV.

Wild turkeys cross a street on the eve of Thanksgiving in New York/Brendan McDermid; Friends and family carry the casket of soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona in Buenos Aires, Argentina/Agustin Marcarian; Margaret Keenan, 90, the world’s first patient to receive the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine in Coventry, Britain /Jacob King, pool via Reuters; UPS employees move shipping containers of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S./Michael Clevenger, pool via Reuters

Sources

Reuters archives