LATEST TECH NEWS: 5 things you need to know today, March 16, 2020

These 5 latest stories from the tech space will keep you updated with trends today.

1. Women in Tech Africa Summit to hold amidst global fears of Coronavirus

Despite the extent of how the Wuhan-originated coronavirus has seen the cancellation of a number of startup events across Africa, the Women in Tech Africa Summit remains slated to kick off on Wednesday, March 18 in Cape Town.

The 2-day event, according to the organising committee, aims to offer extensive range of career and personal development workshops, enlightening discussions, and inspiring keynote presentations from trailblazing advocates who are speaking out to challenge the gender status quo. However, as the fear of Coronavirus still grips the world, there are fears that the event might not be cheerfully attended by anticipated delegates.

2. America’s health agency disrupts U.S. tech events

In a new guidance issued by the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Protection, gatherings of 50 or more people for the next 8 weeks have been disapproved, in a bid to contain the spread of Coronavirus via social isolation. While this will disrupt a number of events and general board meetings slated to hold in the next 2 months, tech event hosts will list among the worse hits.

The U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance on Sunday, March 15, recommending the public to avoid meetings and events with more than 50 participants while equally sounding a note of warning to event hosts and large companies from staging any of such gathering across the United States.

3. UK mounts pressures on tech entrepreneurs, business leaders as it cautions residents of traveling to the US

In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the U.K. government has advised citizens and residents against all travel to the U.S., coming as a part reaction to the U.S. existing ban of countries, which included the United kingdom.

Read also: LATEST TECH NEWS: 5 things you need to know today, March 13, 2020

According to the U.K. Foreign Office, the government is “advising against all but essential travel to the USA.” Reports on the development noted that the announcement by the U.K. authorities followed a move by the Trump administration imposing restrictions on foreign travellers entering the U.S. According to the U.S., however, the effort stemmed out of the need to contain the infection of the Coronavirus after WHO declared it as a pandemic, a week before its pronouncement.

4. Y Combinator looks at hosting a virtual accelerator programme over its traditional physical hosting

As the world reacts and attempts to adapt to the trending Coronavirus outbreak, popular accelerator programme curator, Y Combinator, has announced the possibility of hosting its Summer 2020 accelerator program entirely virtual.

Reviewers have commented saying the development goes a long way to reveal that the world’s premiere accelerator isn’t immune to having its business reshaped by the novel coronavirus spreading across the world. Without any delay, Y Combinator has rolled out the Demo Day of its Winter 2020 cohort as an online-only affair.

5. Nigeria’s CcHub enters into race to combat COVID-19 spread, calls on public to pitch relevant ideas

Lagos-based Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) has thrust its foot into the journey to combat the spread of coronavirus, by calling for applications from entrepreneurs who have an innovative solution to tackle the outbreak.

The announcement, which was made on Sunday, March 15 via a post on the hub’s website, noted that CcHub is looking to support and fund entrepreneurs who have an innovative solution to tackle the coronavirus. According to the management, the development became important in order to curb the spread of Coronavirus pandemic globally while resisting its related consequences in other sectors of various economies across the globe.

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