Satellite Images Reveal The Effects The Disease Has Had

TIANANMEN SQUARE, BEIJING: A healthy crowd of people were milling around the Chinese capital's emblematic plaza on February 21 last year (top image), but on February 11 this year the square was almost deserted

Daily Mail: The impact of coronavirus, as seen from space: Satellite images reveal the effects the disease has had – from empty theme parks to deserted streets

* The Grand Mosque in Mecca and a holy shrine in Qom are missing their usual huge crowds of pilgrims
* Tourists are also absent from Beijing's Tiananmen Square, Milan's Piazza del Duomo and Tokyo's Disneyland
* The before-and-after aerial images have been released by Colorado-based space technology firm Maxar

This series of satellite images shows the impact of the coronavirus outbreak from above, with roads empty, pilgrimage sites deserted and new hospitals springing up in China.

The aerial photographs, released by Colorado-based space technology firm Maxar, show normally bustling spots from Mecca to Beijing thinned of their usual crowds.

One image shows only a handful of pilgrims circling the granite Kaaba at Mecca's Grand Mosque - a sacred site usually thronged with Muslim worshippers - after Saudi Arabia suspended the year-round 'umrah' pilgrimage.

An image above the Hazrat Masumeh Shrine in Qom shows one of Iran's most hallowed places virtually empty, after the country became the centre of the virus outbreak in the Middle East.

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WNU Editor: The images on Tienanmen Square are striking. There is always people there.