COVID-19 Australia project: Data sources and assumptions

As a general note, the data quality for this project varies and can become quickly outdated. We take no responsibility for the data sources listed below but we are endeavouring to stay up-to-date and as accurate as possible during what is a highly dynamic situation.

Visualisations in Tupaia are compiled at midnight each night – we attempt to enter data nightly for the preceding day but this depends on the availability of our data sources. Updates are also made by Departments of Health and where these occur, we update and over-write previous data. Where data is not available until the following day, the visualisations in Tupaia can thus be delayed by between 24 and 48 hours.

Data sources:

ICU capacity: Estimated capacity based on ANZICS Centre for Outcome and Resource Evaluation 2018 Report (https://www.anzics.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2018-ANZICS-CORE-Report.pdf, page 7) and recent media reports.

ICU utilisation: Estimated based on media releases

Population: Australian Bureau of Statistics

Confirmed cases: The Guardian Australia and State Departments of Health

Importantly, there is a difference between the number of new reported cases each day by state and the net increase in cases. The newly reported cases is the number of confirmed cases from the previous day – but this number can be later adjusted for preceding days due to duplicates or patients that were actually from outside the state. For this reason, each day the State Departments of Health release the ‘number of new cases’ and the ‘net increase in cases’, which takes into account adjustments to earlier days. On Tupaia, we are tracking the daily net increase in cases, which is – in the long-term – the more accurate figure. Daily totals in Tupaia may not always match media reporting for that day for this reason.

(https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q5gdePANXci8enuiS4oHUJxcxC13d6bjMRSicakychE/edit#gid=612078092) and the ABC (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-17/coronavirus-cases-data-reveals-how-covid-19-spreads-in-australia/12060704). Discrepancies, where they exist, are double-checked against the official Department of Health data for each state. Special thanks to the Guardian Australia who are generously making their database available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC BY 3.0 AU) licence

Pharmacy locations: The Pharmacy Guild of Australia. Find A Pharmacy website (www.findapharmacy.com.au), last accessed 30th March 2020.

Hospital locations: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. MyHospitals website (www.myhospitals.gov.au), last accessed 30th March 2020

Fever clinic locations: State-based websites administered by the state Department of Health. Some states (e.g. Queensland) are not sharing this data; in these cases we are using media reports. This data may be outdated and contributions are welcomed.

State and LGA boundaries: OpenStreetMaps

All queries can be directed to: contact@tupaia.org