A new study has revealed the places where a person is most likely to catch the coronavirus or COVID-19. An investigation into the mobile phone data of 98 million people revealed that around 80 percent of the infections take place in the same locations.
The US study found that the gyms, hotels, restaurants, and churches are responsible for around four-fifths of the new cases of the virus, as reported by The Mirror. "These are places that are smaller, more crowded, and people dwell there longer," the study co-author and Stanford University Professor Jure Leskovec said at a media briefing regarding the research, as reported by CNN.
COVID-19 Spread
As per the professor, decreasing capacity at those establishments by around 20 percent can contain the new transmissions. "Our work highlights that it doesn't have to be all or nothing," Leskovec mentioned. The scientists tracked the movement of the people to locations like restaurants, gyms, cafes, hotels, and supermarkets as well as to the doctors and places of worship while looking at the coronavirus counts in areas.
"On average across metro areas, full-service restaurants, gyms, hotels, cafes, religious organizations, and limited-service restaurants produced the largest predicted increases in infections when reopened," the study stated. The study focused on the Americans in 10 major cities including Philadelphia, New York, and Washington DC. The residents of the low-income areas witness the worst, the study suggested. Partly because the residents have fewer of the locations available to them so the places get crowded.
In the UK, mass testing is getting rolled out all over 67 towns and cities for a better understanding of the hotspots. The European country is the fifth nation to pass the 50,000 deaths mark after the US, Brazil, India, and Mexico. The cases of the deadly virus are increasing again as the world is set to witness a second outbreak of the pandemic in the winter. The UK has already announced a lockdown to tackle the outbreak as other nations are going to follow.
