Introducing Covid Fire: Providing the Public With Free, Local Awareness of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Covid Fire (@CovidFire) is a free public service website that allows any American to monitor the real-time status of the virus in their local area. No popups. No ads. The goal is to simply help the public better understand their risk so they can adapt their behaviour how they see fit.
A Practical Companion: Realtime Monitoring, Comparisons, & Risk Alerts
Citizens can check the risk in their area at any time by visiting the website. They can also compare areas where family and friends live, or areas where they would like to travel. Favorite locations can be pinned to home screens and desktops for easy access. If interested, they can register to receive free email and text alerts when the risk in their area changes, reducing the need for frequent website visits.
How Covid Fire Works
Early each morning, Covid Fire leverages Microsoft’s cloud computing platform to synthesize and analyse the latest Covid-19 data. Virus speed and density are computed for each county and then combined into an easy to understand 3-category, color-coded risk score. More details about the team, data sources, and techniques can be found on the website.
Covid Fire Helps the Public Navigate the Pandemic
Staying safe and returning to normal life are both important goals. An active awareness of your environment can help you manage these goals until this pandemic ends. Covid Fire is a practical tool that can help with this effort. Stay safe. Stay smart.
