Allegheny County

Carnegie Mellon researchers gather medical, self-reported data to track coronavirus activity

PITTSBURGH — If you’ve been on Facebook or Google recently, you likely saw a survey pop up asking if you or someone you know has COVID-19 related symptoms.

Carnegie Mellon researchers are then using your surveys and other sources to track coronavirus activity across the country.

CMU professor and co-leader of CMU’s Delphi COVID-19 Response Team Roni Rosenfeld explained to us how his team is tracking the coronavirus nationwide.

Lab results, testing results, confirmed cases, doctor office visits, online searches and voluntary surveys on Facebook and Google are all being compiled to get a better picture of how the virus is spreading.

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“So each one of these data sources gives a slightly different picture a different aspect of the spread of the disease,” Rosenfeld said.

These sources have been used before to track the flu.

The data is displayed on this interactive heat map. The darker the color — the more severe the virus.

But here’s the good news; Rosenfeld said the activity in Pittsburgh got better in the past week.

“So this is a very good sign,” Rosenfeld said.

He tells us the social distancing and stay at home order is working.

“As a result we are seeing we were able to slow down and begin take down the spread in the southwestern pa area of course all of that is gonna go away if we reopen too early,” Rosenfeld said.

He said this data can give hospitals an early warning if there’s a potential increase in activity, in case they need more beds, ventilators or staff.

“But also government officials who need to make decisions on whether to tighten or loosen litigation strategies,” Rosenfeld said.

Right now, the map shows current and past COVID-19 activity. Soon it will show future potential activity.

“It’s not a guarantee different scenario are likely to happen and still sometimes it can be a surprise,” Rosenfeld said.

CMU launched the COVID-19 activity on its website today. Researchers plan to update it daily.

This information will be made publicly available at CMU’s COVIDcast web site,covidcast.cmu.edu, and Facebook is making the aggregated survey information from its users available at https://dataforgood.fb.com/covid-symptoms-map/.