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Good Saturday morning. The news has been moving so quickly these days. (Just look at this list of all the state government’s initiatives and orders related to the pandemic, if you need a refresher.)
So we wanted to make sure to tell you about our new, interactive maps showing coronavirus cases by county — not just in California, but in every state.
It’s something lots of you have asked us about, but finding and putting together data in real time has been a herculean task.
I asked Amy Schoenfeld Walker, a journalist and former graphics editor who contributed to our California map, to explain the process a bit. Here’s what she said:
Putting out these maps for every state is such an enormous undertaking, but especially so for California. Tell me a little bit about how you’ve gone about getting the data.
In March, many states began to post the number of positive cases by county, but California said it would not, to protect patient confidentiality. The state’s department of public health website listed positive cases and deaths in a single sentence. It added details such as counts by gender and age, but never total counts by county.
So Times reporters used county and city websites and news releases to tally positive cases for all 58 California counties. And in recent days, a team of Times developers has built web scrapers to automatically extract data from many of these websites.
The scrapers still need to be checked (and fixed) by staffers, who are working around the clock to make sure data is up-to-date and accurate.
What made California a particular challenge in terms of mapping cases?
Every county in the state reports data a little differently. Some sites offer detailed data dashboards, such as Santa Clara and Sonoma counties. These counties also offer graphics, showing things like cases by day and the number of people hospitalized.
Other county health departments, like Kern County, put those data in images or PDF pages, which can be harder to extract data from.
And some counties have much simpler formats. For example, Alameda County’s public health department website updates positive cases and deaths each day in a small table. The county also excludes the city of Berkeley in its count, so our team has been combining data from both county and city websites.
On April 1, the California Health and Human Services Agency launched county-by-county dashboards for positive cases and hospital data. However, many of the individual counties we have been tracking have more up-to-date case tallies than the new state dashboard.
[Here’s what trends to watch in the coronavirus numbers.]
As you were working through the California data, did anything stand out to you?
I think we were struck — and continue to be — by the unequal levels of information offered by the counties. Some sites offer detailed charts and maps, while others note just the total cases for the county.
This is likely because of different levels of staff and resources, but we know that many residents are looking for more information in their communities. There is a promising trend for readers who are seeking more details: We’ve noticed that local sites tend to offer more data over time, as testing access improves and case tallies go up.
City and county representatives have been reminding us that positive case counts are based on confirmed lab testing, and that there may be many more cases in each community.
A city of Berkeley representative explained it this way: “We do not believe the number of cases actually captures the full breadth of what’s happening.”
[See the interactive map and case counts for California here.]
And finally …
Since we’re here, my colleagues rounded up some things to watch, read and listen to while you’re at home this weekend. (Stockhausen’s Lucifer, anyone?) You can find the whole list here.
If you, like me, love television, you will probably enjoy this project from Vulture, wherein creators, showrunners and writers of beloved shows speculated about how they might’ve handled the coronavirus pandemic. (Don’t miss the “30 Rock” episode outline or Coach Taylor’s locker room monologue, depending on your mood.)
Also, here’s a thoughtful piece about how to celebrate upcoming holidays when you can’t gather with friends and family.
Hope you’re all safe and well.
California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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