When the novel coronavirus outbreak hit China in late December and January, the government sprang into crisis mode. Hard-hit cities like Wuhan, where the outbreak began, went into complete lockdown. Millions worked from home or self-quarantined for weeks on end. New hospitals were built in a matter of days to treat the sheer number of patients. People who broke quarantine rules or lied about their travel history were detained.
Soon, the virus spread over the globe, with many countries banning movement of citizens to some ordering sanitisation of public spaces.
Take a look.
South Korean soldiers in protective gears sanitise shacks as a luxury high-rise apartment complex is seen in the background at Guryong village in Seoul, South Korea. Photograph: Heo Ran/Reuters
Students sit apart from each other as they do self-study at an elementary school where the facility was opened for children who cannot stay at home alone while their parents are at work, in Nagoya, central Japan. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters
A guest peers out from a window at H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel, which is on lockdown after the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje, in the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain. Photograph: Sergio Perez/Reuters
Workers with protective face masks on ride smart self-balancing scooters as they control a robotic sprayer spraying disinfectant at a residential compound in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Hubei province, China. Photograph: China Daily/Reuters
Vehicle Maintenance Utility Service Worker Thiphavanh 'Loui' Thepvongsa wipes down an off-duty bus with a disinfectant during a routine cleaning at the King County Metro Atlantic and Central Base in Seattle, Washington, US. Photograph: Jason Redmond/Reuters
A woman stands near a Coronavirus 'pod' at a hospital in London, Britain. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Tourists queue to enter the Louvre as the staff closed the museum during a staff meeting about the coronavirus outbreak, in Paris, France. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Men ear protective face masks following the coronavirus outbreak, as they pray on a street during Friday prayers in local souq, in Manama, Bahrain. Photograph: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters
A man in a protective suit sanitises a water taxi as part of measures to try and contain a coronavirus outbreak, in Venice, Italy. Photograph: Manuel Silvestri/Reuters
Members of the medical team check the temperature of Iraqi men, following the coronavirus outbreak, at the entrance checkpoint of South Mosul, Iraq. Photograph: Abdullah Rashid/Reuters
