The sun is shining, the grass is lush and green, the sky clear blue, yet there is a crisis taking place and people are adjusting to a new way of living.
We have seen a whole new world develop online, with a rise in cookery demonstrations, live fitness and yoga classes and a whole host of celebrities setting aside time to read bedtime stories to our little ones. All this activity for the greater good, to delay the spread of the virus by agreeing to live in isolation. This truly is an extraordinary time in life.
We have also seen technology ramp up to ensure the public are informed about the rapid and wide spreading Coronavirus with a number of COVID-19 tracker apps and online software updates hitting the market in record time. It is interesting to see how geographic analysis is acting as a powerful visual tool in our education and understanding of the virus.
They say “a picture paints a thousand words” and this couldn’t be more true than when using these digital trackers to see worldwide COVID-19 cases on a map, many with tables and graphs but most effectively with maps. Most of them break cases down by confirmed, recovered and sadly, fatal. The facts and figures are really clear and it is evident in parks and on beaches and even in supermarkets, that the information gained from these maps is definitely helping the Irish public in their fight against Coronavirus.
COVID-19 information is generated by taking data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
We have been reviewing some of the ways that organisations and governments have been using geographical displays to show us what is happening. If you’re interested in tracking the diseases’ progress we recommend checking out in no order are:
Within sites visualisation used includes tables, graphs and most powerfully maps.
We hope you find these useful and if have come across any others please let us know
All are also excellent sources, regularly updated for those viewing tracking the spread.
If you need detailed and authorative information on what to do and questions about COVID-19 please see the HSE website.