Georgia revamps virus maps, charts that critics said were confusing – Atlanta Journal Constitution

The largest addition is a recent plan showing enhance by county in the tempo of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 other folks in the past two weeks. That plan, which is adore one published everyday on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution COVID-19 Dashboard, exhibits users the put cases are growing quickest as adjusted for inhabitants.

The DPH portal now parts maps with contemporary coloration schemes and legends, and as much as this point charts for cases and deaths over time. The utter’s website will continue to submit maps by complete cases, cumulative cases per 100,000 other folks, complete deaths and deaths per 100,000 other folks.

In a recordsdata liberate, DPH mentioned the changes are designed to accomplish the net site more user-pleasant and present an ethical image of the epidemic.

Dr. Harry J. Heiman, a medical affiliate professor at the Georgia Disclose University College of Public Health, and a critic of DPH’s recordsdata going via, known as the changes “a broad enchancment,” bringing wished clarity.

“Providing county-level mapping for the basically the most most modern two-week duration furthermore gives noteworthy more actionable recordsdata to both public effectively being practitioners and the public,” he mentioned. However Heiman criticized the division’s persisted gaps in racial and ethnicity recordsdata.

The agency confronted criticism for poor recordsdata visualization, main to confusion. Old maps featured legends that repeatedly shifted as contemporary cases contain been added. That invent alternative made it complicated to take a look at the put cases contain been rising in the utter.

DPH mentioned the contemporary maps feature a white to red coloration map with a mounted scale that might per chance be as much as this point every four weeks. Outdated maps might per chance be archived for comparison.

DPH furthermore refreshed its charts showing everyday reported cases and deaths. The utter beforehand charted cases only by the earliest of both symptom onset, test date or date of test consequence. Deaths beforehand contain been reported only by date of loss of life.

The utter’s contemporary website lets in users to behold cases by date of file or date of symptom onset, and deaths by date of file or confirmed date of loss of life, honest just like the AJC’s dashboard.

DPH’s coronavirus case and loss of life charts beforehand left some viewers with the influence that cases and deaths contain been falling dramatically in basically the most most modern 14 days, when really basically the most most modern days lacked complete recordsdata attributable to plug times in reporting of confirmed cases and deaths.

DPH has suffered just a few embarrassing recordsdata mishaps since the starting up of the pandemic. In Would possibly per chance per chance also honest, the utter acknowledged lumping together diagnostic viral checks, which are intended to search out contemporary infections, and serologic checks, which stare indicators of past an infection, which inflated the utter’s attempting out numbers.

DPH furthermore beforehand published a bar chart of cases by county that was out of chronological present, making cases seem like falling when they weren’t. The chart was mounted after on-line mockery.