"​I headed to the train station to go to Wuhan. My bosses phoned to discuss their concerns about the mission. I insisted on going. I reminded them that I had already covered a cholera epidemic in Haiti", writes Hector Retamal, AFP's eastern China photographer. "I truly grasped the seriousness of the situation when the high-speed train arrived after four hours in Wuhan. Hardly anyone got off the train". 

After the lockdown Hector Retamal went back several times to Wuhan and could watch the city's slow return to normal.  The prestigious picture desk of The Guardian has chosen Hector as its agency photographer of the year . 

When they left, they took with them all the usual kit for reporting on a conflict: bulletproof vests, helmets, satellite phones and first-aid supplies. But, as the AFP journalists dispatched to Nagorno-Karabakh discovered, covering a war in the time of coronavirus brings a whole new dimension to staying safe.