As the death toll of coronavirus continues to mount in China, health officials are racing to control the spread of the virus to other countries and subdue global concern.
Researchers at John Hopkins University have produced a website that tracks the spread of the virus in other countries as well as the death toll, using real-time data from Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China, and Dingxiangyuan, a social networking site for health care professionals that provides real-time information on cases.
The website reports the total number of confirmed outbreaks, number of confirmed outbreaks in each country as well as the confirmed death toll. It also includes an interactive map, on which red dots, representing each confirmed outbreak, are marked in the countries where they are reported to be. Users can click on the dots to get more information about the region.
“The dashboard is intended to provide the public with an understanding of the outbreak situation as it unfolds, with transparent data sources,” wrote Lauren Gardner, a civil engineering professor in a blog post accompanying the website. The blog, she explained, will provide updates on the techniques and models the website will use to track the outbreak.
According to the website, there have been 4,474 reports of outbreak as of January 27 at 8:30 pm EST, most of which are in mainland China and Asia. Five cases have been confirmed in the U.S. and one in Canada.
France has also confirmed three cases and Germany has reported one.
The website also includes a graph comparing the speed of the spread in China compared with the rest of the world.
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