Google launches new global COVID-19 map for journalists

Google in collaboration with Stanford University has launched a global COVID-19 map that makes it possible for journalists to embed up-to-date visualisations of the pandemic on their sites for readers.

Unlike other coronavirus case maps, the ‘COVID-19 Global Case Mapper' allows local reporters to embed a map of their area or even a national case map.

The map shows cases in relation to population.

"It's coloured by numbers of cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days and shows you the severity of outbreak by the number of people in each location, making it easier to compare where you live to the world as a whole," said Simon Rogers, Data Editor, Google News Lab.

Earlier this year, the team launched a US version of the map.

The new version expands that embeddable view across the globe through data for 176 countries in addition to the US, plus additional state and regional data for 18 countries.

The team has used Google Translate so the experience can be viewed in more than 80 languages.

The data is from the New York Times' open COVID-19 county dataset and the COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University and is updated daily.

Stanford University's Big Local News and Pitch Interactive has launched the new global map with support from the Google News Initiative (GNI).

"More in-depth, country-level data will be added over time as the map is developed further and as journalists around the world use it to explain how the pandemic has spread," Rogers said in a statement on Monday.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has surpassed the 20 million mark, while the deaths have increased to over 734,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.