Exploring COVID-19 patterns with Google Sheets
1. Trends in national case data
Q1: How has daily COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths changed in Canada over time since the beginning of the pandemic?
Summary
In this trend, we can see the biggest spike in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 during the holiday season. The 3 are interconnected and so, where there is a spike in cases we can see a spike in hospitalizations and deaths.
2. Ontario’s testing and vaccination trends
Q2: How has Ontario responded to COVID in terms of testing and vaccinations?
Summary
The graph here seems to be an upward linear trend. In regards to vaccinations, this trend will continue to quickly rise as more doses are becoming available to the public. In regards to the tests, I believe that eventually this trend will plateau for sometime then decline as more people are receiving vaccinations.
3. Vaccination rates across provinces and territories
Q3: How do vaccination rates over time compare between all provinces and territories?
Summary
Looking at this timeline chart, I would say that overall the rates have been increasing as expected for vaccinations. Although it seems that as of May 2021, the three territories have the highest vaccination rates.
4. Canadian mobility trends
Q4. How has mobility changed in Canada over the pandemic?
Summary
In this mobility trend, we can see occasional downward spikes but overall, the pattern has remained linear over time. Expect for parks, with gyms being closed and nicer weather, more people are getting outdoors thus expalaining the upward trends in the chart during the spring/summer months.
Final reflection
What inferences can you make from the data you have explored and visualized? What questions still exist about the trends and the data? What new questions has this process generated? What additional information would you like to help answer these questions?
Overall, we are seeing an increase in cases but also an increase in vaccinations. After looking at the trends, vaccinations are gradually increasing which will change the pattern of all the other trends we looked at to start declining. I think a big question while looking at these trends is what are the age groups of these individuals that are being tested, admitted, dying, and/or getting vaccinated? Most of these can be answered by looking further into data from hospital admission and testing/vaccination centres. I believe it would be interesing to group these trends into age groups and see what the patterns are to compare all the different charts.