- The spread of the deadly coronavirus is profoundly reshaping daily life across America (and much of the rest of the world), as states and cities increasingly order citizens to stay home.
- The orders in those localities are meant to prevent health care systems from being swamped with coronavirus cases. In the meantime, the quarantines are radically changing many people’s jobs, which are now done from home in many cases.
- Here’s a look at some of the top apps people are downloading right now to facilitate their work, entertainment, and more.
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Scores of Americans around the country are having to get accustomed to hunkering down at home as the spread of the deadly coronavirus continues ravaging the US as well as the rest of the world. It’s affecting everything from our health to our daily routines, how we live, work, and play, with the effects of this once-in-a-generation catastrophe being compared to a combination of the Sept. 11 terror attacks as well as the Great Recession. We will be dealing with this, talking about it, and grappling with the consequences for months — maybe years to come.
To zero in on just one aspect of the effect all this is having, let’s take a look at how people are adjusting their work as more and more of us are quarantined. For starters, as you might imagine, this is all having a big impact on the top apps people are downloading right now.
As of the time of this writing, the iOS App Store’s top free apps include a mix of productivity-focused applications — things like Zoom, Google Classroom, Hangouts Meet by Google, and Microsoft Teams, which facilitate virtual meetings — along with news apps, must-haves like Gmail, and prized entertainment apps to help us all maintain our sanity during these uncertain times.
Those top apps include:
- Zoom
- TikTok
- News Break
- Google Classroom
- Hangouts Meet by Google
- Microsoft Teams
- Gmail
- Disney+
- Smartnews
- Netflix
This all comes at a time when about 1 in 5 Americans have been ordered by their local governments to stay home so that local health systems don’t get overwhelmed by an influx of new virus cases. In New York, for example, workers in non-essential businesses have now been ordered to stay home, per a press conference Friday from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
That order follows one just a day earlier from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, essentially telling his state’s almost 40 million residents the same thing. Combined, the two states’ populations approach 59 million people — equating to almost 1 in 5 Americans.
Cuomo said he knows his actions “will cause businesses to close. They’ll cause employees to stay at home. I understand that. They will cause much unhappiness. I understand that also.” However, “I accept full responsibility. If someone is unhappy, if somebody wants to blame someone, or complain about someone, blame me. There is no one else who is responsible for this decision.”
