Farmer's Weekly (South Africa)
Online Farmer
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the chancers crawling out of the woodwork, especially in the tech world. Fortunately, many app developers trying to capitalise on the pandemic have had their plans thwarted by Apple.
At the time of writing, the company had banned apps containing the names ‘COVID-19’ and ‘Coronavirus’ from search results on the App store and instead created a special page dedicated to apps developed by reliable sources.
Nonetheless, there are still many dodgy apps out there, such as the one from South Korea that claims to alert users if they get closer than 100m to a coronavirus patient! Quite how it is meant to do this is anyone’s guess. And, of course, it doesn’t need to ‘work’; it can simply send off random alerts when the user is out and about.
CORONA UPDATES
One of the most reliable sites to visit for information on the virus is worldometers.info/coronavirus. The page has a wealth of information: it shows the latest number of COVID-19 cases worldwide, as well as other related statistics on the disease, and provides details country by country.
At the time of publishing, 177 704 people have died from COVID-19, while about
2,6 million people have been infected. Around 696 104 people have recovered.
AS IT HAPPENS
The worldometers.info site offers much more than COVID-19 updates. You can see fascinating statistics on a wide range subjects, such as ‘current world population’, ‘births today’, ‘emails sent today’, and ‘bicycles made today’, all updated in real time.
“Worldometer shows estimated current numbers based on statistics and projections from the most reputable official organisations,” notes the site’s FAQ section.
“As with any statistic, the numbers are not expected to be exact to the single digit, but to provide a fairly accurate and informative description of a phenomenon.”
Sources include the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.
• Greg Miles is a livestock farmer and Internet marketer. Email him at farmersweekly@caxton.co.za. Subject line: Online farmer.