Yahoo News Aerial photos show impact of coronavirus lockdown on public spaces around the world
Normally bustling streets in major cities around the world have been left empty as a result of stringent coronavirus lockdowns, as these aerial images show.
Perhaps most strikingly of all, Pope Francis marked a surreal Palm Sunday in an empty St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
In a ceremony normally attended by thousands of devout worshippers, the Pope urged people living through the pandemic not to be so concerned with what they lack but how they can ease the suffering of others.
Another picture shows the area around the sacred Kaaba in Mecca deserted. One of the five pillars of Islam asserts that every Muslim must perform the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca that ends with a visit to the Kaaba at the centre of the Great Mosque of Mecca.
Other images show virtually empty central squares like Tiananmen in Beijing, and the Piazza del Duomo in Milan.
All around the world, governments that have imposed lockdown restrictions are discussing how and when they will be able to ease them
Denmark, one of the first countries to impose a lockdown, has become the first country to offer a clear timeline out of the restrictions.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on March 30: “If we Danes for the next two weeks, beyond Easter, continue to stand together, at a distance, and if the numbers remain stable and reasonable, then the government will begin a gradual, quiet and controlled opening of our society again."
In the UK, Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that Britain will have to impose more curbs on outdoor exercise if people continued to flout lockdown rules.
Scotland Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood resigned on Sunday after she flouted her own advice to stay at home by travelling to her second home on two successive weekends.
Italy's health minister outlined plans for broader testing and beefed-up health services as part of a package of measures that would follow a future easing of the country's lockdown.
The rate of new infections and deaths in Spain slowed again as the country, one of the worst hit by the pandemic, began its fourth week under a near-total lockdown. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said a ban on all non-essential work will be lifted after Easter.
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