The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic changes in human activities and nighttime light (NTL) at various scales, providing a unique opportunity for exploring the pattern of the extreme responses of human community. This study used daily NTL data to examine the spatial variations and temporal dynamics of human activities under the influence of COVID-19, taking Chinese mainland as the study area. The results suggest that the change in the intensity of NTL is not correlated to the number of confirmed cases, but reflects the changes in human activities and the intensity of epidemic prevention and control measures within a region. During the outbreak period, the major provincial capitals and urban agglomerations were affected by COVID-19 more than smaller cities. During the recovery, different regions showed different recovery processes. The cities in West and Northeast China recovered steadily while the recovery in coastal cities showed relatively greater fluctuations due to an increase in imported cases. Wuhan, the most seriously affected city in China, did not recover until the end of March. Nevertheless, as of 31 March, the overall NTL across China had recovered to an 89.5% level of the same period in the previous year. The high consistency between the big data of travel intensity and NTL further proved the validity of the results of this study. These findings imply that daily NTL data are effective for rapidly monitoring the dynamic changes in human activities, and can help evaluate the effects of control measures on human activities during major public health events.

The outcomes for emergency medical services (EMS) are highly dependent on space-time accessibility. Prior research describes the location of EMS needs with low accuracy and has not integrated a temporal analysis of the road network, which accounts for varying mobility in a dynamic transportation network. In this study, we formulated a network-based location-allocation model (NLAM) and analyzed the spatial characteristics of emergency medical facilities within the fifth ring road in Beijing by considering time, traffic, and population characteristics. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The high demand area for EMS is concentrated in the areas in middle, north, and east during the daytime (8:00–20:00) and in the middle and north during the nighttime (20:00–8:00). From day to night, the centroid of the potential demand distribution shifts in the Western and Southern areas. (2) The road traffic data is sampled 20 times throughout the week, and variations in the average driving speed affect a higher mean driving speed on the weekend. This primarily impacts the main roads, due to these roads experiencing the greatest fluctuation in speed throughout the week of any roadway in the study area. (3) Finally, the 15-min coverage of emergency medical facilities are sampled 20 times in one week and analyzed. Fortunately, there is 100% coverage at night; however, due to traffic congestion, there were a few blind coverage areas in the daytime. The blind area is prevalent in Shijingshan South Station and the Jingxian Bridge in the South fifth ring.