A man wearing a mask walks past graffiti depicting a globe in the Orcasitas neighborhood in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Sept. 28, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
A woman wearing a mask against the coronavirus looks up near the full moon in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province, April 6, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
A health worker takes a nasal swab of a person for a COVID-19 test at a hospital in New Delhi, India, on July 6, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
A passenger who disembarked from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship peeks out of a bus window, Feb. 19, 2020, in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Worshippers wearing protective face masks offer Eid al-Fitr prayers outside a shrine to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 24, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Heath officials check the listings of people who are to be tested for COVID-19 as well as HIV and Tuberculosis, in downtown Johannesburg Thursday, April 30, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
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. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Volunteers spray disinfectant in an alley to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus at the Santa Marta slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Sabatino Di Girolamo, center, mayor of Roseto degli Abruzzi, with his son Francesco, right, and his sister Marisa Di Felice, mourns his mother, Annunziata, as she lay in the morgue of the Giuseppe Mazzini Hospital in Teramo, central Italy, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Corporal Mathias Jahn, member of the German armed forces Bundeswehr, fixes his glasses beside a mobile coronavirus test station in Gera, Germany, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
A group of ultra-Orthodox Jewish youth wear protective face masks following government measures to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, walk in Jerusalem’s Old City, Thursday, July 16, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
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. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Relatives accompany the coffin that contains the remains of Jose Barbaran, who is believed to have died from complications related to the coronavirus, as they travel by boat on Peru’s Ucayali River on Sept. 29, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Romelia Navarro, 64, weeps while hugging her husband, Antonio, in his final moments in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., Friday, July 31, 2020. Antonio was nurse Michel Younkin’s first COVID-19 patient to pass on her watch. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Lucas Lopez, 9, who along with his younger brother had to accompany their gravedigger dad to work Tuesday since there was no one to stay home with them to attend virtual school classes, sits between graves as another worker digs, in a section of the Valle de Chalco Municipal Cemetery on the outskirts of Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
Almost no place has been spared — and no one.
The virus that first emerged a year ago in Wuhan, China, swept across the world in 2020, leaving havoc in its wake. More than any event in memory, the pandemic has been a global event. On every continent, households have felt its devastation — joblessness and lockdowns, infirmity and death. And an abiding, relentless fear.
But each nation has its own story of how it coped. How China used its authoritarian muscle to stamp out the coronavirus. How Brazil struggled with the pandemic even as its president scoffed at it. How Israel’s ultra-Orthodox flouted measures to stem the spread of the disease, intensifying the rift between them and their more-secular neighbors.
Spain witnessed the deaths of thousands of elders. Kenyans watched as schools closed and children went to work, some as prostitutes. India’s draconian lockdown brought the rate of infection down — but only temporarily, and at a horrific cost.
At year’s end, promising vaccines offered a glimmer of hope amid a cresting second wave of contagion.
“The winter will be difficult, four long difficult months,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel, as she announced new restrictions on life in Germany. “But it will end.”
Journalists from The Associated Press around the world assessed how the countries where they are posted have weathered the pandemic — and where those countries stand on the cusp of year two of the contagion.
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