YOU’D be forgiven for thinking this is dawn on a quiet Sunday.

Our city centre - usually packed with shoppers, teeming with traffic and crammed with commuters - peaceful, still and deserted.

But it’s not daybreak, it’s a midweek morning and this is Brighton as you’ve never seen it before.

These pictures show how our vibrant city has fallen eerily silent as residents heed warnings to stay home.

Thriving shopping centres and heaving train stations have been replaced with scenes of desolation - no signs of life whatsoever.

The UK is entering its third week in lockdown, with people instructed to stay at home to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday threatened to prohibit exercising in public as he blasted people for sunbathing at the weekend.

His voice catching with emotion, Mr Hancock added he knows people who have died from Covid-19.

He said: “I’ve lost two people that I was fond of so I understand what a difficult time this is for the country.”

The Health Secretary said yesterday: “Sunbathing is against the rules that have been set out for important public health reasons.”

He added: “If you don’t want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home then you’ve got to follow the rules...

“Let’s not have a minority spoiling it for everybody.”

A couple who allegedly ignored lockdown rules to have a beach barbecue are set to become the first people prosecuted under the new Coronavirus Act.

Police say the pair were verbally abusive when confronted in Hove on Sunday.

The duo refused to leave before police poured a helmet full of water over the smouldering coals.

Officers said a man, 31, and a woman, 48, both from Hove, have been reported for summons but have not yet been charged.

As UK deaths rose to 4,934 yesterday, Government adviser Professor Neil Ferguson said that measures taken to slow the spread of the virus mean the total may be restricted to between 7,000 and 20,000.