Coronavirus ‘heat maps’ reveal intensity of virus in your district

The University of Ulster has gathered together data showing that Mid Ulster and Derry City and Strabane District now have the highest rate of Covid positive tests in the Province.
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The trio of maps are just one part of a series of images compiled by the university, charting coronavirus’ march across the Province.

It shows while overall numbers are higher in Belfast (as might be expected), relatively sparsely-populated council areas to the west of the Bann have in fact become something of a hotspot.

The data her is correct as of January 26 (Tuesday).

The maps are part of what the university calls its Covid-19 Tracker; essentially a more visually-designed variant on the Department of Health’s own long-running dashboard, and it provides handy charts and maps covering an array of facets of the Covid contagion.

Whilst the maps on this page relate to testing, there are other variables which the university has programmed in, such as fatalities and inpatient numbers.

It also has comparisons with the Republic of Ireland.

It has been put together by the university’s School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems, on the Magee campus, Londonderry.

Ever since the start of the crisis, the prestigious medical hub of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, has been running a very similar service, except covering the whole globe.

Dr Magda Bucholc, the key acadmic behind the project, said: “The availability of accurate and timely data to aid decision making is vital, especially during a global pandemic and the Covid-19 tracker from Ulster aims to provide this much needed information to the general public in a format that is easy to understand, digest and used for comparison across regions, times and now across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.”

You can see the entire site for yourself at https://www.ulster.ac.uk/coronavirus/research/impact/ni-covid-19-tracker

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