In the midst of the global outbreak with over 300,000 worldwide death cases of COVID-19, Canada has reported 79,101 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as of May 19, 2020, in which the severity differs from region to region. To provide a timely view and understanding of the evolving pandemic in Canada, a research team at the University of Western Ontario developed a real-time interactive web-based platform, https://covid-19-canada.uwo.ca/. The platform reports the real-time evolvement of COVID-19 in different regions of Canada by providing informative visualization from multiple angles and statistical analysis using different models. The focus is on Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec, the four provinces in Canada that have the most serious situations. Our objectives are to provide timely summarized displays of the development of COVID-19 in Canada to offer real-time evidence-based findings and to create an interactive platform of up-to-date information on COVID-19 in Canada.

The website primarily consists of three sections: DATA VISUALIZATION, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS, and RESEARCH MANUSCRIPTS, which highlight real-time tracking of the development of COVID-19 with visualized graphs and forecast future trends with applications of different predictive models. By providing research-based statistical analysis, we shed the light on the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19. In addition, the section PUBLIC DATA SOURCES offers quick access to a collection of data sources for researchers and industry professionals to conduct their own research on COVID-19.  SELECTED NEWS and STOP VIRUS provide news updates and links for self-assessment tools in the local region as well as preventive measures suggested by the government. READER’S CORNER was created for website visitors to share opinions or feedback.

With the support from the Faculty of Science at the University of Western Ontario, the platform was developed by the research group, co-led by professors Grace Y. Yi and Wenqing He, which includes  Dan Liu, Yuan Du, Yasin Khadem Charvadeh, Jingyu Cui, Li-Pang Chen, Kaida Cai, Qihuang Zhang, Gansen Deng, and Joy He. It was officially launched on May 8, 2020.

Grace Y. Yi, PhD

Professor

Canada Research Chair in Data Science (Tier 1)

Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences

Department of Computer Science

University of Western Ontario