Many emotive and inspiring photographs were taken when covid-19 turned our lives upside down – here are some of the best pictures from the past five years
By Alexandra Thompson
1 January 2025
A covid-19 hospital under construction in Wuhan, China
STR/AFP via Getty Images
It has been five years since covid-19 emerged, triggering a global pandemic that has had lasting consequences on societies, economies and people’s health.
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Soon after the virus was identified, many countries started making plans for treating an influx of people severely ill with covid-19. The above image shows excavators at the construction site of Huoshenshan Hospital, built for this purpose, on 24 January 2020 in Wuhan, China – the initial epicentre of the outbreak.
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People with covid-19 awaiting transit STR/AFP via Getty Images
Huoshenshan wasn’t the only hospital built in Wuhan as officials prepared for the worst. In March 2020, people infected with covid-19 were photographed as they waited to be transferred from a regular hospital in Wuhan to Leishenshan Hospital, also newly constructed for the pandemic.
Traffic thinned in New York City REUTERS/Andrew Kelly