In Pictures

In Pictures: Homeless amid the coronavirus pandemic

Policemen walk past a homeless man sleeping on a bench in Paris, as a strict lockdown requiring most people in France to remain at home came into effect at midday on March 17. [Joel Saget/AFP]

23 Mar 2020

Homeless people are at particular risk of contracting the coronavirus with the systems that care for them poorly equipped to handle a major outbreak.

Vigilant hygiene can prevent transmission, health experts say, but that is likely to be a challenge for people living without homes.

Fears have been raised that the US homeless population – nearly 600,000 people in 2019 – could be particularly vulnerable to the disease.

Modelling has shown that more than 60,000 homeless people could become ill with the coronavirus in California over the next eight weeks, badly straining the healthcare system, according to Governor Gavin Newsom.

Hundreds of homeless people in London are being housed in hotels to self-isolate to provide them with “vital protection” from the coronavirus, the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, announced.

Three hundred rooms have been made available in two hotels for the next 12 weeks, the mayor’s office said in a statement.

Officials in the French town of Cannes said they would open the pavilion of their prestigious annual film festival, postponed due to the coronavirus, to homeless people, as the pandemic spreads in France.

French homeless organisations accused police of issuing fines to rough sleepers for failing to comply with self-isolation requirements under a strict social lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

A homeless man pushes a cart in Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. Homeless people are particularly at risk of contracting the virus. California State officials have announced the opening of shelters and the provision of trailers to accommodate some of the homeless. [Etienne Laurent/EPA]

Homeless people sit under a flyover during a nationwide day-long curfew imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in New Delhi. Millions of people in India were in lockdown on March 22 as the government tests the country's ability to fight the pandemic that has killed more than 14,000 people worldwide. [Xavier Galiana/AFP]

A homeless man wears a face mask as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus in Johannesburg. African countries have been among the most recent to be hit by the global pandemic but as cases rise, many nations are now taking strict measures to slow the spread of the deadly illness. [Emmanuel Croset/AFP]

A homeless man wears a face mask in Cali, Colombia. Colombia will go into compulsory general confinement from March 24 until April 13 to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. [Luis Robayo/AFP]

Medical staff wearing protective suits speak to a homeless man in Ostia, in the outskirts of Rome, during the country's lockdown. [Alberto Pizzoli/AFP]

Workers attend to homeless people at a temporary shelter in the House of Equadorian Culture in Quito during the coronavirus pandemic. [Handout/AFP]

Homeless people sit in a restaurant in Quezon City, Manila, after the shop converted part of its premises into a shelter amid an island-wide lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the outbreak. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered about half the country's population to stay home for the next month in a drastic bid to curb the rising number of new coronavirus cases. [Maria Tan/AFP]

Ian Moore, 59, who has been homeless since 2019, sits outside a Tube station in London, as the number of coronavirus disease cases grows around the world. [Kevin Coombs/Reuters]

Homeless people in Tehran, Iran, visit a shelter established by the municipality to have their body temperatures checked as precautions against the coronavirus. [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu]