Tag: lockdown

The World Just Hit 1 Million Coronavirus Infections

The new coronavirus has now infected 1 million people across the world, a milestone reached just four months after it first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan. More than 51,000 have died and 208,000 recovered in what has become the biggest global public health crisis of our time. Bloomberg reports: When the virus was first discovered, doctors likened it to…

Moscow To Launch Mandatory Surveillance App To Track Residents In Coronavirus Lockdown

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: City authorities in Moscow are rolling out new digital “social monitoring” tools targeting the public, after what officials say were constant violations of the city’s quarantine imposed this week to fight the spread of the new coronavirus. Under restrictions in place since Monday, most of the city’s 12 million residents must remain indoors,…

How to model a pandemic

Behind every government announcement, there is an army of epidemiologists predicting how the virus will spread, and how to beat it. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/how-to-model-a-pandemic…

What Happens After the Lockdown?

BeerFartMoron writes: Recently there has been a proliferation of modeling work which has been used to make the point that if we can stay inside, practice extreme social distancing, and generally lock down nonessential parts of society for several months, then many deaths from COVID-19 can be prevented. But what happens after the lockdown? In an article studying the possible effects…

COVID-19 Pushes Up Internet Use 70 Percent, Streaming More Than 12 Percent, First Figures Reveal

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Forbes: The first internet streaming and usage figures are coming in as the coronavirus pandemic places a quarter of the world’s population under lockdown. As millions of people go online for entertainment and more, total internet hits have surged by between 50% and 70%, according to preliminary statistics. Streaming has also jumped by at…

Amazon Prioritizes Essential Products in India, Temporarily Discontinues ‘Lower-Priority’ Items

Amazon said on Tuesday that it is temporarily discontinuing accepting orders for “lower-priority” products in India and prioritizing servicing urgent items such as household staples, health care, and personal safety products as the e-commerce player — along with several of its competitors — grapples with coronavirus outbreak in one of its key overseas markets. From a report: “To serve our customers’…

8 European spacecraft put in hibernation amid virus lockdown

The European Space Agency said Tuesday that it is putting eight of its spacecraft into hibernation as it scales down operations during the coronavirus outbreak. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-european-spacecraft-hibernation-virus-lockdown.html…

Coronavirus Cases Have Dropped Sharply In South Korea. What’s Its Secret?

South Korea “has emerged as a sign of hope and a model to emulate,” reported Nature earlier on Tuesday. “The country of 50 million appears to have greatly slowed its epidemic; it reported only 74 new cases today, down from 909 at its peak on 29 February.”
And it has done so without locking down entire cities or taking some of the…

Videogames Are Setting New Records For Simultaneous Users

Forbes reports that in a world filled with school closings and social isolation, gaming has surged:
– Steam, the most popular digital PC gaming marketplace, reached new heights Sunday, drawing a record 20,313,451 concurrent users to the 16-year-old service, according to third-party database SteamDB – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, released by Steam-owner Valve in 2012, seems to be the top beneficiary of the…