500 Cities added to UN Habitat COVID-19 Daily Trending Site
Toronto – December 10, 2020 CitiIQ has added 500 new cities with daily trending to the UN-Habitat COVID-19 tracking platform (https://unhabitat.citiiq.com/) The new cities cover the UK (85), Germany (48), Argentina (58), Japan (24), South Korea (4), Australia (30), South Africa (7), Canada (25), the United States (75), and Mexico (144).
COVID-19 trends by country are helpful but the purpose of the UN-Habitat site is to show current impact at a city level where the front line challenges are often faced. The trending at a city level is readily illustrated using colour trending on a world map simplifying the process of understanding these dynamics that are changing on a daily basis.
As an example of how the site can be used, those interested in the recent upward trending in many European countries resulting from a second wave of Covid-19 can now view response city by city. Many cities within their borders have made difficult decisions to try and change the rate of COVID-19 infections by implementing restaurant closures and other restrictions. The site shows many German cities have now moved from trending red (increasing cases) toward a stable level. Yet, there are some exceptions such as the city of Dresden, still at a red level, but hopefully to go green as cases consistently decline.
Other parts of the world such as the United States and Canada are experiencing significant second-wave COVID-19 increases and this is reflected by more cities falling into the increasing cases trending (red).
These trends are made even more clear when a specific city (New York City shown) is selected and the city trending is compared with that of its Country.
On the ground, people working on the front lines of COVID-19 testing and treatment are aware of such surges. For those who may be less directly connected to changes in the infection patterns, trending information provides a point of reference that is changing over time. These changes can support vigilance in following distancing guidelines where downward trending is being sought through stronger regulation and sense of hope where trending is actually moving downward.
Linking large-scale patterns with local conditions and actions remains an important strategy in fighting the current pandemic infection rates.
*1464 Cities Scored December 7, 2020. Daily city counts vary depending on data availability that day.
