Half the world in lockdown: 3.9 billion people are currently called on to stay in their homes due to coronavirus
- Over half of the world’s population is currently locked down due to coronavirus
- The introduction of a curfew in Thailand tipped the number past half of the world
- Comes shortly after the number of infections globally reached 700,000 people
More than 3.9 billion people, or half of the world’s population, are now being called on to remain in their homes to combat COVID-19, according to an AFP tally on Thursday.
The measures – which include compulsory or recommended confinement, curfews and quarantines – are in place in more than 90 countries and territories.
The introduction of a curfew in Thailand, which takes effect on Friday, pushed the number past half of the global population.
In this March 20, 2020 file photo, a resident of the Lambeth House, where a cluster of COVID-19 formed, reacts from her balcony as opera singers Irini Hymel and Bryan Hymel sing to the quarantined residents in New Orleans
A resident of the White House estate, a private condominium of 226 mostly unsanitary dwellings, collects food offered by neighbours from his balcony, using a rope made with blankets yesterday in Marseille, southern France, on the fifteenth day of a lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19
Egyptians watch Mahmoud Saad playing saxophone and Mohamed Adel violin at their balcony during curfew in Giza, Egypt yesterday
A boy looks out from a common balcony of a residential building during a 21-day nationwide lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kolkata today
According to figures released on Tuesday, the pandemic has infected more than 700,000 people around the world.
There have been at least 721,595 cases including 33,881 fatalities in 183 countries and territories, according to official sources.
The United States has the largest outbreak in the world with 143,055 confirmed virus patients, of whom 2,514 have died.
Mansour Hamid, 31, a senior video editor at a private company, takes a break looking outside from his apartment balcony, as he works on a video project at his home in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday
Egyptian Mohamed Adel plays violin on his balcony during curfew in Giza, Egypt yesterday. Egyptian authorities have announced a two-week curfew, which started on 25 March, during which public transportation will be suspended to avoid the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which causes the COVID-19 disease
A man rides a bicycle as a woman sits behind along a deserted street during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Allahabad today
Italy has the unwanted lead in deaths, recording a death toll of 10,779 people out of 97,689 confirmed cases.
China, where the outbreak first emerged in December 2019, has officially registered 81,470 cases and 3,340 deaths.
Some 3.4billion people are now living under severe lockdown restrictions which would have been unthinkable in many democracies until a few weeks ago.