Month: April 2020

WASHINGTON: A one-time lockdown won’t halt the novel coronavirus and repeated periods of social distancing may be required into 2022 to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, Harvard scientists who modeled the pandemic’s trajectory said Tuesday. Their study comes as the US enters the peak of its COVID-19 caseload and states eye an eventual easing of tough lockdown measures. The Harvard team’s computer simulation, which was published in a paper in the journal Science, assumed that COVID-19 will become seasonal, like closely related coronaviruses that cause the common cold, with higher transmission…

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With the UK going into a total self-imposed quarantine, several large American cities in lockdown, and distressing scenes in Spain and Italy, life right now feels chaotic and insecure. It’s a crisis. The economy has ground to a halt. These are the worst of times. And yet there is hope. This is temporary. It will end. Already, there are reasons to be optimistic. So if you’re feeling a bit hopeless, consider: Life in China and South Korea is returning to normalChina has reported very few new domestic coronavirus cases since…

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LAHORE: The ongoing lockdown in the city has reduced load on the transmission system by 1200 megawatt, leading to availability of additional electricity in the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) system. According to sources, the electricity load on the system was recorded at 3000 megawatts during the month of April 2019 which has reduced to 1800 megawatt during April 2020, leaving the system with a surplus load of 1200 megawatt. They said a reduction in the load was due to closing down of industrial and trading centers in the provincial…

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ISLAMABAD: Power Division has convened meetings of public sector Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Generation Companies (Gencos) and private sector IPPs on April 15 and April 16 in Islamabad aimed at exploring different ways to reduce tariff. On April 2, 2020, Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Minister for Power, Omar Ayub, comprising Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Coordination of Marketing and Development of Mineral Resources, Secretary Finance, Secretary Power Division and Secretary Law and Justice to deliberate various viable and mutually acceptable…

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With Covid-19 spreading worldwide, the global economy faces mounting downward pressure. Uncertainties are on the rise. China’s foreign trade is encountering major difficulties,” said Chinese customs spokesman Li Kuiwen. Overall in the first quarter of 2020, China’s exports dropped 13.3 per cent, with imports down 2.9 per cent.Last week, China’s Ministry of Commerce said that imports and exports had improved in March after the coronavirus outbreak caused a dramatic collapse in the first two months of 2020, but conceded the outlook for China’s exports remained gloomy given the economic damage…

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