Giving Compass' Take:

• Solutions journalism is covering this crisis effectively due to the availability of high-quality data tools tracking COVID-19 cases and deaths.

• How can donors utilize data tools about coronavirus to inform their giving? 

• Learn how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting journalism. 

Journalists rely on data to confirm and inform key aspects of their reporting, often focusing on the worst performers in a given dataset and overlooking positive deviants — the people, businesses, organizations and lawmakers who are innovating creative responses to tackle their community’s toughest challenges.

In this COVID-19 era of reporting, many journalists say they cannot write or produce a story on the novel coronavirus without incorporating its traumatic effects. Yet journalists — and their audiences — also know that progress is being made and want to see that reflected in news coverage. Datasets can be a good place to start.

A while back, we shared 17 Databases you can use in your solutions reporting. That list remains a handy resource. And we’ve now aggregated an additional 15 databases and other resources that are tracking various aspects of COVID-19’s billowing sweep around the world, providing detailed analysis of the problems while also hinting at what’s working and where. Over time, this data will help reveal who’s making progress, and what might be learned from it.

  1.  The epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. is in New York, and Coronavirus in New York City: Tracking the spread of the pandemic is a data project by The City publication documenting the number of tests, confirmed cases and deaths there. The numbers are broken down by borough, with comparisons to New York State and the United States. The data is available on Github.
  2. The New York Times maintains an interactive dashboard, updated daily: Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count. The data is available to download on Github.
  3. The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer organization launched from The Atlantic, collects data from every U.S. state and territory on the number of positive and negative tests, hospitalizations, deaths, patients in ICU, the number of ventilators in use and the total test results. The data is easy to navigate and is searchable by state.

Read the full article about data tools to track coronavirus by Holly Wise at The Whole Story.