Photo Essay: A Surreal Look at New York City in the Age of Coronavirus

Apr 1, 2020

An empty Times Square as crowds stay home to stop the spread of coronavirus. (Photo: Michelle Castillo)

Over the past few weeks, field videographer Stephen Coombs and I have been out on the streets of Manhattan taking a closer look at the impact the coronavirus has had on New York.

I've lived in New York for over a decade, and I've never seen the streets so deserted. Normally you can barely squeeze through the sidewalks of Times Square, but now city sanitation workers call it a ghost town. Restaurants in NoHo are shuttered, with one resident saying it feels like a street from another planet. Meanwhile, it takes hours to enter a Costco in Queens, with people anxiously looking to buy toilet paper, water and other bulk food.

With nowhere else to go, New Yorkers head to the streets and the parks for fresh air. Even though they do it cautiously spaced apart, some with masks and gloves, it may not be enough to curtail the spread of the deadly virus.

And the virus continues to infect more people. Government officials warn that the hospital system will soon be at capacity. Field hospitals are popping up in Javits Center and Central Park's East Meadow.

Here's a glimpse of what we've seen so far:

A field hospital is rising in Manhattan's iconic Central Park. The project, which is being led by Christian non-profit Samaritan's Purse and the Mount Siani Health System in New York, will have 68 beds. It will be focused on respiratory care, and have ten ventilators.

Meanwhile, New Yorkers have also been relying on Central Park to get fresh air — with masks, gloves, and some social distancing.

The Javits Center convention center, which is normally the site of major industry gatherings like New York Comic Con or the 2020 Toy Fair, now has a much more serious role amid this health crisis. It has been converted into a 2,500-bed facility for non-ICU cases, including some COVID-19 patients. The medical center opened on Monday.

Essential workers, including Uber drivers, are taking precautions. This driver was concerned about his family back in Africa, and the spread of false information.

Times Square, the Crossroads of the World, is normally packed elbow-to-elbow with a crush of workers, tourists and street performers. Now, it is practically deserted.

Likewise, the now-empty Vessel at midtown Manhattan's Hudson Yards is normally a popular attraction and shopping area. The Vessel cost $200 million to construct, and only opened on March 15, 2019. Nearby, observation deck, called The Edge at Hudson Yards, opened on March 11, 2020 and was closed due to coronavirus concerns just two days later.

Like Americans across the country, there were lines wrapping around stores, like this Costco in Long Island City, Queens, where people tried to stock up on the essentials. The store was practicing social distancing and limiting the number of customers who could enter at one time.