The Impact of COVID-19 — Data Analysis and Visualization across different countries
In December 2019, there was a cluster of pneumonia cases were reported in China. Investigations found that it was caused by a previously unknown virus, now named the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. The first cases which were reported in China spread all over the world starting in late January 2020. At present, the virus seems to be spreading ever more rapidly with new cases and related deaths encountered every minute across the world.
Summary:
While going through a list of COVID — 19 articles, news blogs, and social media posts, I myself got intuited or came across a series of queries that were raised on the current pandemic situation. Hereby, the list of all the queries will be discussed with the help of a few interesting data insights that I have derived from the COVID-19 data. The visualization of the outbreak of coronavirus across the world helps us to better understand the situation.
1) Which is the most affected continent in the world due to COVID-19? Though it is known that the virus originated in Asia, now that it has been spread across the world. Some continents had managed the spread well and some struggling. Thus, I thought to find the continent which is hit by worst.
2) Which are the Top 5 countries in the world currently with more positive cases?
I was curious to know that the most affected countries are developed, developing, or under-developed countries.
3) Which are the least affected countries in the world?
While more attention is given to the top affected countries, knowing the least affected countries can help us look into their strategies or the reasons behind the lesser counts.
4) Which countries have more positive cases per million population?
The countries worst hit by the pandemic are now known and a quick question came through to know how does it look though when accounting for population. Thus, it makes much sense to determine the countries with most cases with respect to its population.
5) Which countries have more deaths per million population?
Owing to the previous question, knowing the countries with most deaths (per million population) is intuitive.
6) How do daily confirmed COVID case-trends in top affected countries look over a particular month?
From the first instances of the case in China, cases started increasing all over the world. The date on which the first case is reported varies across different countries and so as the confirmed case counts reported every day. On the bottom line, I thought to analyze and compare the case trend among the highly affected countries.
7) How does the rate of increase in death vary across the USA and China? Did they flatten the curve? What is the current situation likely in South Korea, Canada, and India?
Every country is trying hard to flatten the curve by stopping the spread of new cases putting an end to the new COVID related deaths. Some had succeeded and some are in the middle of the process by establishing restrictions and safety measures. Analyzing the death rate over different months will help us better answer the questions.
8) How are the confirmed case and related death count distributed over different months?
To view how the COVID case and death count have expanded from January 2020 to the first week of May 2020. The comparison across countries can aid determine where and when the pandemic is growing at a faster rate.
Analysis:
Here I have used different charts with animations to show the information that was mined from data sources.
- The most affected continent in the world:
The scatterplot shows a comparison between the confirmed case counts and the deaths across different continents in the world. It can be seen that America, Europe, and Asia have the highest case counts in order. Notably, Europe had registered the highest death numbers in comparison to the cases registered there.
2) Top 5 countries with the most positive cases:
The bar chart shows the top 5 countries with the most number of confirmed COVID cases. The USA tops the list with over 1284000 cases (as of May 10, 2020) and increasing which is followed by Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, and Russia.
3) Least affected countries in the world:
From the bar chart, it can be interpreted that Greenland, Comoros, and Montserrat have the least number of cases followed by Suriname, Bhutan and other smaller countries to follow. The average cases reported in these countries ranges from 3 to 11.
4) Countries with more cases per million population:
It can be conveyed from the bar chart that Qatar has almost 8000 confirmed cases per million of its population which took it to the top of the list under consideration. This is followed by Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Singapore, and the USA. Ideally, countries with reported cases of more than 4000 and with a population of more than 1 Million is considered for this particular analysis.
5) Countries with more deaths per million population:
With almost 750 of its citizens dying per million population, Belgium recorded the highest number of deaths and topped the world. Notably, Canada is in the 8th position in comparison to the 37.59 million population it has as of 2019. Ideally, countries with reported deaths of more than 4000 and with a population of more than 1 Million is considered for this particular analysis.
6) Case trends across different countries over individual months:
In all the graphs, the horizontal scale indicates the days over a particular month and the vertical scale indicates the number of positive cases.
The first graph illustrates the COVID spread in the month of February 2020. Overall, the cases in China saw a slight increase in the mid of march and then showed a constant decrease in cases over the rest of the month. On the other hand, there was a drastic increase in cases in Spain after the 20th of February 2020. Also, cases in Spain started increasing at the end of this month. Notably, cases reported in the UK and the USA in these months are lesser than 10.
The second graph illustrates the COVID spread in the month of March 2020. The daily cases reported almost went below 50 in China. With an average of 4000 cases per day, Spain and Italy were almost in the middle. The USA experienced a rapid surge in the mid of March which recorded almost 25000 cases at the end of the month. The third graph indicates the COVID scenario for April 2020. Notably, the number of cases started reducing in Italy, Spain, and the UK. By the end of April 2020, the daily number of cases went less than 15 in China. On the other hand, the USA faced a worrisome situation with new cases skyrocketing each day.
7) Rate of increase of Death across different countries:
From the timeline analysis, its seen that the rate of increase in death counts is somewhat less in the USA compared to India and Canada. Out of the two latter countries, the increase is more in India though the count is comparatively less than Canada. At the end of April, the total death cases recorded were approximately 60000, 3500, and 12000 in all three countries in order. But if the same situation prevails, with the current trend, India will surpass other countries in death counts over the next few months. Enough measures have to be taken to prevent the same.
China and South Korea had managed the situation effectively which is evident fro the graphs above. The curve almost flattened at the end of April with no new COVID related deaths being reported.
8) Comparative analysis of COVID case and death rate over different months:
Except for China, other countries have the death rate increasing at an alarming rate. While Italy is concerned, though it had a higher rate of new case counts at the beginning, it started reducing after March, whereas its death rate doesn’t seem to decrease. This may be due to the high older population the country has. Both the new cases rate and the death rate in the USA is increasing at an alarming rate. The rate is so high that the total confirmed case and death counts touched 1million and 80 thousand approximately. The exact rate and the numbers for the other countries can be well understood from the graph.
Conclusion:
This article gives a piece of detailed information on how COVID-19 has affected the world and how the inferred insights can be utilized for further analysis. The graphs can likewise be applied to other different scenarios to deduce key data insights.
Datasets:
The data-set sources are processed and the latest updates are made available by the “European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control” on their website. The data will be updated on a daily basis website and the same can be accessed through the link.
Reference for the scenarios discussed:
- https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/africa/covid-19-north-africa-most-affected-in-entire-continent-with-68-of-all-deaths-70299
- https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/covid-19-coronavirus-top-ten-most-affected-countries/
- https://www.newsweek.com/belgium-highest-covid-19-death-rate-1498021
- https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-confirmed-cases-of-covid-19-per-million-people
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/restrictions-covid19-1.5562644
- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2066rank.html
