When are these charts updated?

Charts are updated once per day as soon as possible after data is updated by the CDC and CSSEGIS, which has been at 8pm daily. Sometimes CSSEGIS does not update the data until after midnight. We created the charts usually within an hour of the updated data being posted by them. We no longer update the Tennessee data at 3pm daily.

What is the colored line?

The colored line is a seven-day running average. That is the y-axis value for a given day is the average of the past seven days. If the line is red then it is sloping upward and the corona epidemic is worsening. If it is green, it is sloping downward, so the epidemic is improving. The reason the number seven was chosen is because almost all of the charts show a seven-day cycle. The number of cases tends to go up in the middle of the week and down on the weekends. This could be because people are more likely to get tested for coronavirus on a weekday, because clinics are more likely to open on a weekday, or because coronavirus reports are more likely to get submitted by a clinic or hospital on a weekday. The purpose of the colored line is to compensate for the weekly cycles and show a truer progression of coronavirus.

How do I get the link to the charts to put into an email or post?

The link to a chart page is found at the bottom of each page. Copy and paste it into any document.

Can I use these charts in another document and distribute it publically?

Yes. These charts are a public service for free use and distribution. Try to give GMX Analytics and Johns Hopkins University/CSSEGIS an acknowledgement as the source.

How do you extract charts?

To extract the charts, and insert them into email, slideshow, or word processing software, right click on any chart, and select Copy. Next, right click in the other software, and select Paste.

How do you save charts?

To download the charts as a file, right click on any chart and select "Save Image As" or a similar choice. The wording of the correct choice varies according to whether you use Firefox, Chrome, or other web browsers.

Why do some of the charts for foreign countries start on the date of the first confirmed case in the USA?

The database used comes from information provided to the CDC, and the CDC to provides this to CSSEGIS (See 'Source' link on home page). This means it is a primarily a database for the USA. Although it has all other countries in the world within it, it still only starts with the first confirmed case reported by a state health department in the USA (22 Jan 2020 in State of Washington).

Why are the counts here so much lower than shown in other places?

Most other places show the total accumulated cases and deaths. This site shows the cases per day and deaths per day. For tracking growth, it is a more accurate measure.

Why do some of the charts look wild and erratic from time to time?

The compiling of CDC by CSSEGIS is imperfect, like all things. Datasets sometimes have errors, such as a negative number of deaths or cases that produces wild charts. CSSEGIS corrects this as soon as it is discovered or reported by others, and reposts the databases.

Why aren't there charts for the number of recoveries from the virus for US states and counties?

At the present time, CSSEGIS only provides databases with the recovery information for countries as a whole or for provinces of non-US countries. CSSEGIS often restructures the database and modifies the type of information they provide without much notice. We strive to keep up with the continuous changes by providing as many charts as possible that cover all of the information available as soon as possible.

Why do the case and death counts on the charts disagree with those reported on a state's official website?

The US states require health care organizations to report communicable diseases such as the corona virus. Some require it immediately, some allow up to a one day delay. The states then forward this to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC contracts with the CSSEGIS group at Johns Hopkins University to make this information (data) available to the public. GMX Analytics obtains the databases from the CSSEGIS group.

1. Efforts are made at every step by the CDC and CSSEGIS to correct errors and fix missing information to improve the data accuracy. This means changing it. For example, submitted information sometimes is missing the corona victim's county or other information. Sometimes the county that is reported is for the clinic rather than that of the corona victim; Sometimes the victim has different work and home counties, complicating the selection of a single county as the place where they were exposed. Sometimes the county reported for a victim is in a different state than the one listed, for unknown reasons. Sometimes the victim is traveling out of state, so the county in which they acquired the condition is a best guess. Given this and other complications, steps are taken at different stages by the CDC and CSSEGIS to complete or correct missing or incorrect information.

2. Information submission and correction is imperfect. Cases or deaths may not be reported on the exact day that it happened, but may be submitted at a later day, particular if a clinic, hospital, or state office is being overwhelmed. This leads to a correction of previous day's counts that has to propagate through the state offices, CDC, and CSSEGIS, making them temporarily different. CSSEGIS warns everyone that, "Note: some records may look incomplete or inconsistent with previous days information due to the modification of past data from the data source." The CDC states, "In the event of a discrepancy between CDC cases and cases reported by state and local public health officials, data reported by states should be considered the most up to date," and "Numbers updated Saturday and Sunday are not confirmed by state and territorial health departments. These numbers will be modified when numbers are updated on Monday." So, there are a lot of reasons why counts do not match up between different sources at different times. Many times, there is no way of knowing which is the most correct. This is a natural reality that challenges all users of the this information. 3. Previous information is often corrected by the state health offices over time and sent to the CDC, so the past data changes from time-to-time

How do you decide which countries to put into which world regions?

The categories were taken from https://www.thoughtco.com/official-listing-of-countries-world-region-1435153

How do you decide which states to assign to which US regions?

The categories were taken from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis at https://apps.bea.gov/regional/docs/regions.cfm

Why are your charts and pages so basic and plain?

We believe that unnecessary enhancements distract one away from the data presented. Along with ease and clarity from using plain charts, an added benefit is that the web pages load relatively fast.