— News and Commentary —

Astounding Photos Show New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles Empty Amid Coronavirus Quarantine

By  Emily Zanotti
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   DailyWire.com
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NEW YORK, USA - MARCH 22: Empty streets are seen in New York City, United States on March 22, 2020. The "New York State on PAUSE" that executive order is in effect at 8 p.m. Sunday night, March 22nd. All citizens are required to stay home except to buy their needs as medical or necessary supplies. New York has reached to 17,000 Covid19 cases as of today. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Photographers across the country are documenting an amazing sight: empty streets in some of the largest cities in the United States, if not the world, as places like New York, Illinois, California, and Louisiana beg residents to stay inside, practice social distancing, and self-quarantine if possible to curtail the spread of coronavirus.

Satellite images of most of America’s major cities show desolate urban wastelands.

In New York, where traffic typically clogs the streets 24 hours a day, thoroughfares are clear and subways are empty.

One photographer captioned the shocking scene: “New York City, population 8.623 million, Subway population at rush hour = two people and a cat.”

Reuters captured empty subway cars.

Times Square, which is usually shoulder to shoulder, stood empty yesterday.

Chicago, likewise, is empty. Stores along the famous “Magnificent Mile” — the city’s high-end and luxury shopping district — are boarded up to prevent looting.

Chicago is under a “shelter in place” restriction and residents have been instructed to remain at home until at least April 7, unless they must leave for a necessary item, like groceries or medicine.

Los Angeles, California, famous for its incredible traffic, is also deserted, with residents under a similar order to remain in their homes until the threat of a coronavirus pandemic passes.

The shocking lack of crowds led one resident to ask if Los Angeles was, in fact, actually in a movie.

In New Orleans, Louisiana, the famous Bourbon Street, where parties rage nightly, is now a wasteland, populated only by rats.

On Friday night, the area was all but abandoned.

Just days ago, Florida’s governor was begging Spring Breakers to empty Florida’s beaches, lest the contribute to the spread of coronavirus. Now, Miami’s famous South Beach sits empty.

The phenomenon isn’t limited to the United States. Landmarks all over the globe are being abandoned in the name of “social distancing” — the easiest and, arguably the most effective, way to ensure coronavirus does not spread further.

Bondi Beach in Australia has no sunbathers.

Drone video of Paris, France, landmarks shows a lonely Eiffel Tower.

London’s tourist areas and tube are empty.

Rome is deserted as well. Italy, of course, has suffered some of the most coronavirus casualties of any country in the world, including China, where the virus originated.

Barcelona, likewise, is empty.

The story is eerily the same across the world. On Tuesday, in a photo essay, The New York Times labeled the phenomenon, “The Great Empty.”

“Today a different global calamity has made scarcity the necessary condition of humanity’s survival. Cafes along the Navigli in Milan hunker behind shutters along with the Milanese who used to sip aperos beside the canal. Times Square is a ghost town, as are the City of London and the Place de la Concorde in Paris during what used to be the morning rush,” the outlet reported. “The photographs here all tell a similar story: a temple in Indonesia; Haneda Airport in Tokyo; the Americana Diner in New Jersey. Emptiness proliferates like the virus.”

In the United States, the lockdown is likely to stretch well into April. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he’d like to see businesses begin to reopen around Easter, April 12, but experts suggest that any return to normalcy will be slow. Many cities could be sparsely populated for many months to come.

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