Category: Technology

Researchers in China have found that wearing a face mask at home can reduce the chances of family members catching coronavirus by 79%. The study, published in the BMJ Global Health illustrates that the practice was effective only before symptoms emerged in the first person in a family.
The study, which was carried out with inputs from 460 people of 124 families with at least one confirmed COVID-19 case between late February and late March 2020.
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The families sized 2-9 comprised of three generations in most cases. The family members were defined as people who lived four days before and more than 24 hours after the first infected person showed COVID-19 symptoms.
This study confirms the highest risk of household transmission being prior to symptom onset, but that precautionary, such as mask use, disinfection and social distancing in households can prevent COVID-19 transmission during the pandemic.
T..

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Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided against imposing a stricter lockdown, as advised by the health experts, saying that it was not a cure for the coronavirus.
Khan, while speaking to media after a meeting of the National Coordination Committee (NCC), said that lockdown will be detrimental for the already squeezed economy, as well as for marginalized people.
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There are 25 million laborers whose families will starve if they don’t work. Personally, I have always believed that the lockdown was going to affect these workers.
He continued that lockdown only works to control the spread, but so far, results show that it has not worked our way.
The purpose of a lockdown is that it only stops the spread of the virus. It is not a solution. Let me repeat, a lockdown isn’t a solution or treatment.
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Punjab Govt Reopens Restaurants and Tourists Destinations
Post Eid Business Hours Khan also announc..

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Budget 5G phones are on the rise and Samsung is right on time to take full advantage of that opportunity with its newest release. The Korean tech giant has quietly unveiled the Exynos 850 SoC with an integrated 5G modem for mid-range phones, set to compete with the popular Dimensity 800.
The Exynos 850 is based on Samsung’s 8nm LPP process and consists of an octa-core CPU with ARM’s Cortex A55 cores clocked at 2.0Ghz. It is paired with the ARM Mali-G52 GPU for some light gaming.
The SoC can support up to FHD+ resolution (2520×1080 pixels) displays, LPDDR4X RAM, eMMC 5.1 storage, and dual camera setups with 16MP and 5MP lenses. For single cameras, it can handle up to 21.7MP lenses and this applies to front camera as well. Video recording capabilities go up to 1080p 60 FPS and the supported codecs include HEVC (H.265), H.264, and VP8.
Connectivity options include Cat.7 LTE DL (downlink), Cat.13 UL (uplink), WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, FM Radio, and GNSS such as GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou,..

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A summary from the Punjab health department has made shocking revelations regarding the spread of novel coronavirus across the province, especially in Lahore.
The document forwarded to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar revealed that no workplace, town, or residential area is virus-free in Lahore.
The data acquired through two parallel sampling cohorts, Randomized Targeted Sampling (RTS) and Smart Sampling (SS), showed an alarming positivity rate of 5.18 percent and 6.01 percent respectively, in Lahore.
Samples were collected from various towns, workplaces, and hotspots. Results showed that 6 percent of all tests were positive while some towns showed a positivity rate as high as 14.7 percent. Considering these samples a true representation for Lahore’s population of 11.8 million, total cases across the provincial capital are estimated to be around 670,800.
The summary mentioned that these cases were asymptomatic thus could not be reported to health officials but became the main source of ..

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Prime Minister’s Advisor Malik Amin has said that the government is taking all-out measures for overall environmental protection through forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation programs and boosting the country’s climate-resilience through enhanced disaster risk management.
He said this while addressing a signing ceremony of the five-year $188 ‘Pakistan Hydromet and Ecosystem Restoration Services project’ agreement on Monday.
Under the agreement, the World Bank will join hands with Pakistan and provide funding and technical support to the latter’s disaster resilience and ecosystem restoration initiatives through more reliable and timely weather forecasting improved disaster risk management services as well as overall environmental sustainability and achieving green growth targets of the country.
The advisor Malik Amin Aslam highlighted,
This is the first time that Pakistan has successes to win heft funding of $188 million for an ambitious five-year project that aims to ad..

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In due consultation with the stakeholder and through thorough internal review and deliberations, SECP has shared key tax proposals considered to be critical for capital markets and corporate sectors.
These proposals broadly cover the following areas:
Addressing the anomaly created in the definition of security u/s 37A for computation of capital gains tax on listed securities. New listings have been severely impacted due to withdrawal of income tax rules providing taxation of capital gains on disposal of shares of a private after listing at the exchange, in light of a court judgment. For unlocking the potential of Private Funds, proposals to allow perpetual pass-through status to all categories of private funds have been proposed. Further, considering revamping of the regulatory regime and introduction Private Funds Regulations, 2015 also require consequential changes to the Income Tax laws. Proposal for promoting documented REIT structures was aiming at addressing short term and inad..

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Karachi-based e-commerce marketplace Bazaar has raised $1.3 million, making it the largest pre-seed round in Pakistan. Indus Valley Capital (IVP), a Pakistan-based fund led the round. IVP is a project of Atif Awan, LinkedIn’s former VP Growth who also led early investments in Airlift.
The biggest gain for Bazaar during the round was an investment from Alter Global, a Silicon Valley-based fund for emerging markets. It marks their first-ever investment in Pakistan. Besides, some investors from the Middle East & Pakistan also participated in the round.
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The round was organized and conducted entirely on Zoom over a period of 12 days, whereas, the founder, Saad Jangda and Hamza Jawaid, received the term sheet just ten days after the first pitch.
About Bazaar Bazaar, a startup launched just two months ago, connects retailers (grocery stores only for now) with wholesaler..

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