Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas, ADVISORY
EDITORS:
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. But each nation has its own story of how it coped. At year’s end, AP journalists in 13 countries, in text, photos, video and graphics, explore the many ways the virus transformed life, how governments responded and the lessons learned.
The following package of stories will move on Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 12:01 a.m. ET.
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas: A pandemic atlas looks back at how COVID-19 took over the world in 2020. Upcoming: 1,500 words by 12:01 a.m., photos.
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BRAZIL —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Brazil: The story of COVID-19 in Brazil is the story of a president who insists the pandemic is no big deal. Jair Bolsonaro condemned COVID-19 quarantine, saying shutdowns would wreck the economy and punish the poor. He scoffed at the “little flu,” then trumpeted the fatalistic claim nothing could stop 70% of Brazilians from falling ill. And he refused to take responsibility when many did. He poured money into the economy to ease the pain of the pandemic. But while Bolsonaro could have inspired people to hunker down, he instead encouraged them to flout local restrictions. Upcoming: 690 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year. Video: New video edit about father whose son died of COVID-19 will move.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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CHINA —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-China - Workers have returned to factories and offices, students are back in the classroom and once again long lines form outside popular hot pot restaurants. In many ways, normal life has resumed in China, the country where COVID-19 first appeared one year ago. China’s ruling Communist Party has retracted some of the most sweeping anti-disease controls ever imposed. The challenge is jobs: The economy is growing again, but the recovery is uneven. Upcoming: 630 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year. Video: Video edit featuring interviews and scenes from Wuhan.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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GERMANY —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Germany - Germans enjoyed a largely relaxed summer with many restrictions lifted, the dividend of a rapid response to the initial coronavirus outbreak and a reliance on early and widespread testing that won wide praise. But as people grew lax in following the rules the numbers began to climb to nearly quadruple the March daily record, and the country now finds itself in a new lockdown as it tries to bring the pandemic back under control. Upcoming: 650 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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INDIA —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-India - A nation of 1.3 billion people, India is likely to emerge as the country with the world’s highest coronavirus tally. It responded to the pandemic early on with an abrupt nationwide lockdown, but the number of cases spiked as restrictions eased and its creaky public health system struggled to keep up. Questions have been raised about its unusually low death rate. India’s virus worries are also multiplied by its struggling economy that recorded its worst performance in at least two decades. Upcoming: 600 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year. Video: New video featuring interviews with migrant workers who went back to their villages in the spring and returned to New Delhi to try to find work.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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ISRAEL —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Israel - When Israel went into its second nationwide coronavirus lockdown in September, most of the country quickly complied with the closure. But in some ultra-Orthodox areas, synagogues were packed, mourners thronged funerals and COVID-19 cases continued to soar. The flouting of nationwide safety rules in ultra-Orthodox areas reinforced a popular perception that the community prioritizes faith over science and cares little about the greater good. It also has triggered a backlash that threatens to ripple throughout Israeli society for years. Meanwhile, the neighboring Palestinian territories -- the West Bank and the Gaza Strip -- are coping with their own crises. Upcoming: 700 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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IRAN —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Iran - At the start, Iranian officials downplayed COVID-19 -- denying the mounting toll of infections, refusing to close mosques, making half-hearted gestures at locking down businesses. That was then. This is now: Even Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has worn disposable gloves while planting a tree for state media, and prayed in an empty mosque to mark the holy Shiite commemoration of Ashoura. The coronavirus pandemic has only grown worse in Iran in the course of the year, threatening everyone from the day laborer on the street to the upper reaches of the Islamic Republic. Upcoming: 660 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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ITALY —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Italy - In late February, Italy became the epicenter of COVID-19 in Europe and a cautionary tale of what happens when a health care system in even one of the wealthiest parts of the world collapses under the weight of pandemic sick and dead. When the second wave hit in September, even the lessons learned from the first weren’t enough to spare Italy’s disproportionately old population from devastation. Despite plans and protocols, monitoring systems and machinery that were put in place to hedge against the expected autumn onslaught, thousands more died and hospitals once again were brought to the breaking point. Upcoming: 680 words. Photos: Selection of new photos featuring medical workers and archive images from throughout the year. Video: New video edit featuring medical workers who have been treating COVID-19 patients.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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JAPAN —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Japan - The COVID-19 pandemic in Japan had a turbulent start in February when a luxury cruise ship returned to its near-Tokyo home port carrying passengers and crewmembers; their infections exploded during quarantine. Despite concerns whether the country could survive future waves of infections, Japan has been spared the dangerous surges seen in the U.S. and Europe, and hopes to host the Olympics next summer. Experts say the use of masks and border control have been key to keeping the Japanese caseload low. Upcoming: 620 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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KENYA —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Kenya - From children forced into hard labor and prostitution, to schools largely closed until 2021, from a child shot dead by police enforcing curfew, to babies born in desperate conditions, the effects of the pandemic in Kenya have fallen hard on the young. Growing economic pressures, and Kenya’s intention to close schools for almost everyone until 2021, has put enormous pressure on children, who were suddenly left to drift by the millions. Some now split rocks in quarries, or have turned to prostitution or theft. Upcoming: 640 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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PERU —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Peru - For months Peru held the grim title of first worldwide in per capita COVID-19 deaths. It didn’t have to be that way. Decades of under investment in public health, poor decisions at the onset of the pandemic, coupled with severe inequality and shortages of life-saving goods like medicinal oxygen combined to create one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks. Now the nation is coping with crippling, mass grief. A recent poll found that 7 in 10 Peruvians know someone who has died from the virus. Upcoming: 700 words, photos. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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SOUTH AFRICA —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-South Africa - Responding quickly with one of the world’s harshest lockdowns, South Africa slowed the initial spread of the coronavirus and the country passed its first peak with far less deaths than experts had predicted. But in the world’s most unequal country, the disease hit the poor the hardest and the economic downturn sent unemployment to 42%. Upcoming: 600 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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SPAIN —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Spain - 2020 will also go down as the year in which an unknown virus shook the foundations of the social contract and threw into question a system that failed to prevent so many deaths. Politicians boast that the system didn’t collapse during that first wave, when the country recorded 929 deaths in a single day. But health professionals will tell you that the actual cost was overworked staff who fell sick more than anywhere else in the world and suffered a huge emotional toll. Upcoming: 600 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year. Video: New video edit focusing on nursing homes.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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UNITED STATES —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-United States - Americans have been inundated by wave after wave of grim numbers -- COVID-19 deaths in the hundred thousands, infections in the millions. While those figures testify to a tragedy of historic proportions, they don’t fully capture the multitude of ways, large and small, that the virus has upended and rejiggered everyday life. Upcoming: 680 words. Photos: Selection of new photos and archive images from throughout the year. Video: New video edit focusing on a Brooklyn funeral home.
Interactives/Graphics: Interactive with numbers on death toll, 7-day trend line of cases, per capita information. Chart showing the course of cases over a year.
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OTHER COUNTRIES —————
Virus Outbreak-COVID 2020 Atlas-Other Countries - The nations of the world ran the gamut in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic -- sometimes veering from strict to lax measures in the course of just a few months, or vice versa. A look at Australia, Canada, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, North Korea and South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Upcoming: 1,300 words, photos selection from these countries.
—The AP