Changing COVID-19 page layouts to keep up with focal points

My team has now been tracking COVID-19 data for 608 days.

Unbelievably (sadly) we had a conversation today about adding more rows to our database before next year.

Based on the current trajectory of the pandemic, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to stop collecting the data — but I do believe we should continue to adjust our presentations to respond to the audience’s salient questions.

Last week, in response to the approval of third-dose booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine for certain people, I decided it was time to realign our central COVID-19 data page. I’ve found it is more effective to time these updates to coincide with real-world changes than to do it based on a calendar.

Based on the latest circumstances, our new version moves booster shot information to the top. Thankfully, the state created a form for checking eligibility that we were able to embed.

Additionally, because we had finally culled enough data from breakthrough cases, I determined it was time to begin displaying a chart of that trend. Like our preexisting charts, this will adhere to our philosophy of automatic updating where our teammates simply add daily and weekly numbers to our central collection spreadsheets and the displays will update accordingly.

No data was deleted in this refresh. The page continues to display everything we’ve collected about reported cases, vaccination rates, community transmission, hospitalizations and fatalities.

Hopefully, one day, we’ll be able to archive all of this content. For now, we’ll keep updating the database every afternoon and revising the public display to respond to the latest point of interest.