In response to the recent surge of COVID-19 across the region and the frequent fluctuations in case rates, Essentia Health launched a COVID-19 Regional Projections Dashboard.
The dashboard aggregates publicly available data and features an interactive map of Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Users can compare case numbers and projections by state and drill down further by county. Available metrics include cases per 10,000 people, daily new cases, seven-day positivity rates, etc.
“It’s intended to inform our communities by presenting rich data in a highly visual way,” a news release stated.
Visit https://bit.ly/2VvNFHa to access the dashboard.
“We hope that community members use this dashboard to better understand the impact of COVID in our region, and how behaviors like physical distancing and masking affect the spread of this disease,” Dr. Sarah Manney, chief medical information officer at Essentia Health, said in the release. “As a community we can use this dashboard to observe the changes over time and celebrate as we slow the spread of COVID.”
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Essentia Health noted people can look at case rates following a mask mandate or a holiday to understand the resulting impact. The trendlines tell a story of the numbers throughout this pandemic, highlighting the severity of the current situation and forecasting possible scenarios, the release stated.
“We as a team of scientists have been watching this every day since March, and we can absolutely tell when the data changes because of the behavior of the community,” Manney said.
Developed jointly by Essentia’s enterprise analytics department and the Essentia Institute of Rural Health, the dashboard is updated daily, Monday through Friday. Users are encouraged to first view the three-minute video tutorial, which provides additional context and explains how best to navigate the dashboard.
“This is an evolution of the work of our highly talented data scientists and researchers from the Institute of Rural Health,” Manney said. “It’s a collaboration between those two groups, and they’ve worked really hard. They’re passionate about caring for our communities and presenting data with education. This is the result of many, many months of their work.”
