Archive: Around Town

A website developed by a Cornell University team offers insight into the rate of coronavirus infections across New York state over days, charting daily and cumulative totals of new cases to help users see whether they’re flattening the curve. The site, updated daily with data from all 62 of the state’s counties, provides easy-to-use interactive visualizations depicting the virus’ spread or slowdown by county or statewide.

“When we had to shut down our lab, we wanted to see what we could do with our expertise in systems engineering to help the public and provide timely information,” said energy systems engineering professor Fengqi You, who is leading the effort.

The site includes a play button and a slider where users can watch how infections spread day by day across New York state, as well as interactive charts offering different ways of viewing the outbreak statewide or by county. Users can view the total number of new infections by county, as well as a chart showing the numbers of infections per 100,000 residents for each county since the first COVID-19 case was reported in New York state on March 2.

The team is making improvements and adding to the site, hoping to soon add hospital bed and fatality data.

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