Editor's note: China Daily reporters look back at the events that affected them the most last year.

The people of Wuhan have my undying respect

Perhaps one of the most unexpected events last year was the global COVID-19 pandemic, which shows no signs of abating even after infecting more than 80 million people across the world and changing everyone's life in so many ways.

As a health reporter, I have closely followed the news about the novel coronavirus from the very beginning.

I have been most impressed by how quickly every outbreak in China－including the one in Wuhan, Hubei province, which was seriously hit early last year－has been effectively brought under control.

When I arrived in Wuhan at the end of January, several days after the start of the national mobilization to fight the epidemic, the outbreak was escalating rapidly.

In February, at the outbreak's height, thousands of new cases were reported every day in the city.

The number quickly fell to zero in mid-March, which meant the epidemic had effectively been brought under control in Wuhan and China in a little more than two months.

Behind this success were the heroic and tireless efforts of hundreds of thousands of people in Wuhan who were engaged in epidemic prevention and control, along with support from the whole country.

But on top of those efforts was the central leadership's determination to make people's health and lives the top priority, even at a heavy economic cost.

After the lockdown in Wuhan was lifted in April, several scattered outbreaks on a much smaller scale occurred in other cities, but they were all quickly controlled by strategies such as mass testing and contact tracing.

Global cooperation will be crucial in the fight against the worldwide pandemic.

Early in March, doctors from Tongji Hospital, a leading establishment in Wuhan, held a video conference with their peers from Niguarda Hospital, a top medical center in Milan, Italy, to share their knowledge of the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients, plus disease prevention and control measures.

During the March 4 discussion, Zhou Ning, associate professor of cardiovascular diseases at Tongji Hospital, warned of the outbreak expanding in Italy.

He suggested the immediate implementation of strict control and prevention measures to avert an outbreak as serious as the one in Wuhan.

After the conference, Wang Daowen, director of the Chinese hospital's cardiovascular department, made a statement.

"Combating the virus is the common task of all humankind, and we must intensify our sharing of knowledge to cope with it," Wang said.

Following the online exchange, many similar experience-sharing activities were held online in other hospitals in Wuhan. It is disheartening, however, to see that the global pandemic has deteriorated, despite doctors' efforts.

Looking back at 2020, I sometimes cannot help wondering whether the global pandemic could have been avoided if every country had taken responsible and resolute measures and made lives and health a priority from the start.

Moreover, what would the effect have been if every person had temporarily sacrificed freedom of movement for the good of the whole, and if stigmatization, conspiracy theories and disinformation had not stood in the way of the fight?

In retrospect, I have even more admiration for the people of Wuhan.

Just a few days after human-to-human coronavirus transmission was confirmed, the city of more than 10 million residents was cut off from the rest of China and the world in a successful bid to contain the outbreak.

The lockdown, unprecedented in human history, started two days before Spring Festival, aka Lunar New Year's Day, the most important traditional holiday for Chinese people.

Wuhan's wide, deserted streets lined with lifeless skyscrapers gave me a surreal feeling when all I had to do was file reports, but they also gave me more faith in the city's ability to conquer the virus.

Wang Xiaodong