The Surprising Beauty of Isolation

Amid the chaos, there are pockets of beauty that illustrate how people are coping with the times. Below are some oddly striking scenes from around Asia.

At a Catholic church in Borongan town, Eastern Samar province in central Philippines, churchgoers sit apart from one another, separated by yellow tape strapped onto the seats. As of writing, there are 636 cases and 38 deaths from the coronavirus in the Philippines.

Two men cross a deserted road in New Delhi, India, during a one-day nationwide shutdown on March 22. As of writing, the coronavirus has infected at least 562 people and killed 10 in India. On March 25, India announced that it was going into a complete lockdown that would last for at least 21 days.

At a drive-thru coronavirus clinic in Daegu, South Korea, medical staff take samples from passengers with symptoms of the coronavirus. As drivers do not need to get out of their cars, these drive-thru coronavirus clinics lower the risk of infection and speed up the testing process. There are now 9,137 infected cases and 126 deaths in South Korea.

A hospital staff cleans up an empty temporary hospital in Wuhan, China after all patients were discharged. Following a significant and sustained reduction in the number of coronavirus cases, China has announced that the lockdown of Wuhan, the first epicentre of the coronavirus, will end on April 8. In China, there are a total of 81,637 cases and 3,285 deaths from the coronavirus.

At an auto plant of Dongfeng Honda in Wuhan, workers have lunch while seated far apart from one another. After a two-month lockdown beginning on January 23, movement restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus in Wuhan are finally easing. People are starting to go back to work and public transportation is gradually resuming operations.

On a train in South Sumatra, Indonesia, commuters sit far apart from one another, with red ‘X’s taped onto seats as a measure of social distancing. As of writing, there are 790 confirmed coronavirus cases and 58 deaths in Indonesia.

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