7 Dashboards To Track The COVID-19 Epidemic

Of all the exciting things in the news, shadows cast from the constant COVID-19 updates are hard to ignore. Aside from the pandemic, good things are happening too – more 5G rollouts are underway, the weather is getting nicer, and hopefully, there are other things in the works that brighten your day.

But right now, it’s hard to ignore COVID-19 and the havoc it’s causing as it is affecting us all in some way, even if we’re just sitting on our couch more than usual. There are a lot of questions we all have but for now, all we can really do is wait and keep track of this virus’s rise and fall. Let’s briefly look at why we’re compelled to track this disease and go over some COVID-19 dashboards that help us track the progression of the pandemic.

The desire to track the virus

Biologically, we are predisposed to rumination where we basically mull over and sometimes obsess over things that are our minds. Right now, it’s hard not internally speculate and even discuss perceptions and outcomes based on the current state of affairs due to COVID-19.

For many of us, this is the first time our federal government has stepped in and effectively blocked us from gathering. It feels like an alternate reality and for many of us, the only way to mitigate feelings of boredom or isolation is through keeping up with the virus.

Thankfully, we do have multiple dashboards available on the web and in various apps that help satisfy this “need to know” without requiring us to tether to mainstream media.

Popular COVID-19 apps circulating the Internet

For many of us, the numbers are all that matters. We don’t need a proxy such as a reporter or an anchor to disseminate figures and pontificate on the meanings. We can do it ourselves with these unique apps.

IMHE. This unique web-based app from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) reports on the COVID-19 spread but with a lens over necessary medical resources. On the main page, you can see the projection of “beds needed” the COVID-19 dashboard patients would need based on availability and the current status of infected patients.

Coronavirus Graphs. This tool from Continent syndicates information from the web and arranges it in a graph that shows the number infected over time by geolocation in a colorful format. The arrangement of Coronavirus Graphs makes it easy to see how the virus is distributed by the population. Here, you can take advantage of the filtering and sorting checkboxes to create a more custom view.

COVID-19 Aviation Impact. The data-mapping company, planefinder, has developed a tool that allows users to look at the aviation impact of the Coronavirus. This tool shows how flights from various popular airlines have declined in flights. By opening the console, you can easily see how this pandemic has affected travel across the world.

The Tim Pokart COVID-19. As a bootstrap project from a loan developer based out of Saxony, Germany, this is a great tool to compare current for COVID-19 with respect to cases spurring up in China. The developer, Tim Kopart, doesn’t leave any indication as to why he developed this site outside of a side hobby (apparently, he’s a physics student) – nevertheless, the COVID-19 Dashboard does a good job of laying out information in a digital fashion to showcase the distribution of infections around the globe.

John Hopkin’s Dashboard. We discussed this in a previous post that touches on the tools we use to cover everything from small disease outbreaks to current pandemics. The John Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Center uses current data to clearly display the number of cumulative confirmed COVID-19 cases, death total, and figures of recovered individuals. The figures can be displayed in a worldwide format or it can be filtered to see data for individual locations.

World Health Organization. From what is perhaps the most official set of data, the World Health Organization provides a simple dashboard to show figures of current COVID-19 data from around the globe. Like other tools, you can use the graphic interface to hover over locations to see data for individual areas or you can dive deeper by using the search function to query specific data.

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. As the COVID-19 outbreak has hit Europe especially hard, data from the ECDC is a great place to get a grasp on the transgression of the virus but about a month ahead of the United States. The tools from the ECDC aren’t as graphical (excluding their infographics) but for your inner scientist, it’s helpful to take a gander at countries that began experiencing the outbreak prior to it reaching the states. For those who are especially predisposed to ruminating on ‘when this will end’ these tools provide some insight and hopefully, bring some level of comfort as well.

At Blue Label Labs, we are committed to building great apps – we happen to have an eye for good designs and great UX. Keep checking back as we will likely hit this topic again in the near future. Ideally, we hope the next post on the matter is to debrief on this whole COVID-19 fiasco.

Until then, stay strong and keep up with your health habits.