New dashboards make COVID-19 data visual
We have changed how COVID-19 information appears on our website. It is now in data dashboards with new visualizations and metrics. We hope that they make it easier for you to use our data to answer your questions. Keep checking the website — we aim to update it every day with new information that is accurate and complete as of 11:59 p.m. the previous day.
Check out the new dashboard at doh.wa.gov/coronavirus.
This dashboards were developed in partnership with Microsoft’s AI for Health team, and it relies on data reported by local health jurisdictions, health care facilities, and labs. We have a team working with local health departments and those who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 to make sure our data are as accurate and complete as possible. This work happens on an ongoing basis. As we find out more information about people diagnosed with COVID-19 — for example, they actually live in a different county than what we originally thought — we fix that information, so you may notice small changes in the number of cases we show in each county as a result.
Some information takes more time to figure out. It might take a couple days to learn from a laboratory that a person has tested positive for COVID-19. Our death data come from death certificates. After a person dies, it can take several days to receive a completed death certificate. And, in some cases, it can take a while longer to figure out exactly how somebody died. So, you’ll notice we’ve marked the most recent days of data as incomplete on our charts.
You have all the information we have, so we appreciate everyone’s patience as we work to understand and report information in this unprecedented time. We’ll learn more and improve as time goes by.
What does it mean to flatten the curve?
Maybe you’ve heard we’re trying to “flatten the curve.” On our website, we call the curve we’re trying to flatten “an epidemiologic curve,” but usually we just say “epi curve.” The epi curve shows the number of people who got sick with COVID-19 each day in Washington out of all those who have been tested since late February. While it’s likely many more people in Washington have gotten sick with COVID-19 and have not had a test — and therefore are not on our epi curve — the shape of the curve is still informative: the number of people in our state who have had COVID-19 has been increasing through this time period. We will monitor this information over the next couple of weeks to see if the social distancing we are doing flattens the curve.
Meet the public health ChatBot
Our friends at Microsoft also helped us add a ChatBot to our website. Located on the lower right of our home page, it looks like a text bubble labeled “COVID-19 questions.” You can ask ChatBot COVID-19 questions, and it scans our website to find documents that can answer your question. We’re really excited about our new robot friend, and hope it will help you find what you need.
ChatBot is new and we’re still training it. So if the answer you get doesn’t quite hit the mark, email us at DOH.Information@doh.wa.gov to let us know and to ask us your question. Or you can call our COVID-19 hotline at 1–800–525–0127.
More information
Stay tuned to our blog for more information on how you can help stop the spread of COVID-19. Sign up to be notified whenever we post new articles.
Information in this blog changes rapidly. Check the state’s COVID-19 website for up-to-date and reliable info at coronavirus.wa.gov.
Answers to your questions or concerns about COVID-19 in Washington state may be found at our website. You can also contact our call center at 1–800–525–0127. Hours: 6 am-10 pm, seven days a week.
