How the coronavirus outbreak has affected Wuhan: a bird's eye view

The turn of the new year has seen the Wuhan city in China plagued by the novel coronavirus. But the shockwaves of the virus have penetrated other countries as well. So far, the virus has caused over 600 deaths along with more than 31,000 confirmed cases of the virus from which only a little under 1700 have recovered successfully, Johns Hopkins reports.

The tech world has also been affected. In particular, supply chain hits and store closings are the corollaries of the novel coronavirus to tech behemoths like Apple and Samsung Electronics. But for now, let's take a bird's eye view of how the virus has changed the metropolitan landscape of Wuhan, China.

Satellite images from Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies (via MIT Technology Review) show that following a quarantine of millions of people in the region, the city of Wuhan is almost at a standstill currently. The city's airport lacks activity with multiple airplanes parked indefinitely at the gates. Statistically, according to FlightAware, China saw a cancellation of 222 departures (16.7%) and 238 arrivals (18.2%) on February 2 alone.

Air travel is not the only mode of transportation that has taken a hit. Bridges and roads that were teeming with activity a few months back are now deserted.

Coastal areas have also seen deforestation after the authorities rushed to build two hospitals within days. One of these hospitals, Huoshenshan, was completed in under ten days.

Source: MIT Technology Review