Cone Health's New COVID-19 Website Includes Risk-Assessment Tool

Cone Health has built a website to help people understand more about COVID-19 and how it's spreading in North Carolina. 

When the pandemic began, data scientists started tracking the numbers that were available and used the information to help the health care system predict needs such as hospital beds, PPE, and more.

Now, Cone Health's Enterprise Analytics team is making their current work available to the public through a new website. It shows how and where the virus is spreading, county case numbers, and other demographic information. In addition, it includes current reproduction numbers, or the average number of new cases a single infection could cause.  

Cone Health data scientist Michael DeWitt says the site has a new risk-assessment tool.

“We can estimate how many likely infectious people are in the community, and then for a particular gathering size or a number of unique contexts, you can understand what's the probability that you'll run into someone with COVID,” he says.

DeWitt says this will be important as people begin to consider gatherings around the holidays.

For the most up-to-date information on coronavirus in North Carolina, visit our Live Updates blog here. WFDD wants to hear your stories — connect with us and let us know what you're experiencing.