See the City’s Silent Streets as Austinites Stay Home

Downtown resident Andrei Matei got some attention in the news last week for his candid photos of a bizarrely empty Austin, as the city effectively shuts down to prevent the spread of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak — and just in time for our new shelter-in-place orders, which took effect in Travis and Williamson Counties last night, Matei has released a new batch of snapshots from deserted local streets.

Taken over the last few days, these images are eerie but uplifting — it’s definitely a little unsettling to see the city this quiet, but also indicates that residents are taking seriously the “social distancing” required to reduce the impact of this pandemic.