Preparing for Coming RSV, Influenza Epidemics

Nonpharmaceutical interventions slowed the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases but now, as NPIs are lifted, countries are seeing a resurgence in several respiratory diseases. In Chaos, scientists, using data from Hong Kong to develop their model, describe a threshold control method that can be used to predict the best time to lift NPIs without overwhelming the hospital systems when these other respiratory diseases inevitably surge back. They found that reintroducing NPI measures when a threshold of 600 severe cases is reached could ensure that the hospital system in Hong Kong is not overwhelmed by severely infected patients.

CityU co-hosts online science and tech conference with Nature journals; pre launch for CityU’s HK Tech Forum

Leading scientists exchanged innovative views on contemporary trends in the chemistry of 2D materials at a three-day online conference co-organised by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and Nature Conferences, the preeminent series curated by the highly prestigious science journal Nature and Nature journals.

School Closures May Not Reduce Coronavirus Deaths as Much as Expected

School closures, the loss of public spaces, and having to work remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic have caused major disruptions in people’s lives all over the world. After running thousands of simulations of the pandemic response in New York City with variations in social distancing behavior, researchers suggest a reduction in fatal coronavirus cases can be achieved without the need for so much social disruption. They discuss the impacts of the closures of various types of facilities in the journal Chaos.