From Iraq to Rome: Cities deserted and airports empty amid coronavirus outbreak

The global death toll from the novel coronavirus topped 4,000 and over 1 lakh infections have been reported, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, warning that the threat of a pandemic was “very real”.

Updated: March 11, 2020 20:44 IST

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While the total number of confirmed cases in India reached 60 Wednesday, 8 new cases were reported in Kerala on Tuesday, taking the number of infected people to 17 in the state. In pic: A view of an empty movie theatre after Kerala state government ordered the closure of theatres across the state till March 16, amid coronavirus fears, in Kochi. (REUTERS)

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Mecca: Police guard the the Kaaba, the cube building at the Grand Mosque, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Friday, March 6, 2020. Saudi Arabia emptied Islam's holiest site for what they say sterilization over fears of coronavirus. (AP)

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Spain's coronavirus cases have surpassed 2,000, with roughly half of them in the Madrid region, where two-thirds of the country's virus deaths have occurred. In pic: Teachers speaks inside an empty classroom in a closed school during the first day of a two-week clousure of all kindergartens, schools and universities in the Madrid region. (Reuters)

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A restaurant is seen empty of people at a mall, following the outbreak of coronavirus, in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq. (Reuters)

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The Church of the Nativity is seen behind a locked entrance amid coronavirus precautions, in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Reuters)

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A person walks at Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II on the second day of an unprecedented lockdown across all of the country, imposed to slow the outbreak of coronavirus, in Milan, Italy. (REUTERS)

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A woman prays on her knees in front of an empty St. Peter's Square as Pope Francis gives his weekly general audience via transmitted video a day after the Vatican closed the square and Basilica due to coronavirus concerns, as seen from Rome. (REUTERS)