After Moscow and other Russian regions applied a strict “self-isolation” regime for all people, Russia’s biggest IT company Yandex launched a service, which tracks how well people abide by these temporary new rules.
How does it work?
Daria Sokolova
According to the company’s press release, the index of self-isolation compares the daily activities of Yandex users in the city now with a usual working day before the pandemic. “If it’s the same as during a usual rush hour, the self-isolation level is low, 0 points, and it’s bad,” the statement reads. “If it is quiet in the city like at night, it’s 5 points. The higher the level, the harder it is for the virus to spread.”
Yandex
Yandex says that on March 30, the self-isolation index in all Russian cities with a population over one million was 2.9. The data shows that starting from March 28, the index has rapidly increased throughout the country. On Sunday, it was 3.6. It means that people are really staying home. In Moscow, the index on March 30 was 3.2. In St. Petersburg it was 3.
According to Yandex’s data, on March 31, the highest index was in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk (3.8), followed by Nizhny Novgorod (3.6), Omsk (3.6), Perm (3.5), Ufa (3.4), Chelyabinsk (3.4), Voronezh (3.3), Yekaterinburg (3.3), and Moscow (3.3).
Among the smaller cities, the most “self-isolated” places are the two Far Eastern ones – Khabarovsk (4.7) and Vladivostok (4.6).
Which cities does the index cover?
Yandex
The index currently shows the level of self-isolation for cities with more than 100,000 residents. The average Russian index is calculated for cities with more than one million people. The IT company promises to introduce this service for smaller towns soon.