The Corona Map: Visualizing the Pandemic
By: Ramiz Sami
Tags: Mapping, Maps, Corona, Data Visualization, GIS

The Novel Corona Virus, the Pandemic of the Century has brought hysteria all over the world. Stock markets witnessed their worst day since the 2008 crises and oil prices saw their biggest fall in 29 years.

First of all, let us understand what is this new Corona Virus or the COVID-19. Corona isn’t a single virus, it is a family of viruses that causes diseases like flu, etc. It is the newest discovery from that family which has been named the Novel Corona Virus or the COVID-19.

So how is this new Coronavirus different from the old Coronaviruses that don’t seem to hurt much? Well, the main issue is that it is new and we don’t yet have much research and/or medicine available to treat this. Another issue with this virus is that it is highly contagious.

Around 97% of its victims survive but people with weak immune systems can’t fight it and we don’t have the medicine to kill this virus yet.

Scientists and researchers are working on it and soon we will have vaccinations and treatment available for this. Governments and private institutions worldwide are working to mitigate the disaster and contain the virus.

How can GIS help?

“GIS provides excellent means for visualizing and analyzing epidemiological data, revealing trends, dependencies, and inter-relationships.”

To respond to the disasters we need data about them and in this age of data analytics and the tools we have available now, there is a lot that can be done. In this regard, the Johns Hopkins CSSE did great work. They have been collecting data and posting it daily on their repository. They also created a portal that shows current information.

The above portal does a great job of providing the latest information but lacks the historical information on the map which is present in the datasets that they have provided. They do provide historic data in their charts but not on the map.

What we are doing?

I believe that visualizing historic data related to this Pandemic in space would add value for the researchers and whoever wants to study more about the COVID-19. So, I and my friend decided to build a small tool: The Corona Map.

This is a free and minimalistic tool that we have developed for those interested in studying how the disease has spread and what is the status of it around the globe. It could be beneficial for travelers, doctors, researchers, NGOs, governments and anyone who wants to study and/or find out the current status of the impact of this disease.

We have only worked on it for a week so far and we plan to add more layers of data to it in the future and will keep updating the current data every day. Right now, it shows the global stats about each day on the map, and the stats for each country for each day since the first case was reported there.

Calendar at the bottom right allows you to check the status of Corona on any date

Stats of Coronavirus in China until March 09, 2020

We are looking at more sources of data and will add them to make it more useful for researchers. If you want to do your bit and want to share data or ideas that can really help researchers and organizations fighting against the disease, please reach out to us so that we can make The Corona Map more helpful for them.