COVID-19 express review - December 5th 2020

Number of laboratory-confirmed cases of people diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19), and number of deaths associated with COVID-19, as defined by the World Health Organisation, by country since March 1st 2020, all in one chart.

Methodological note:

1. General
The animated chart features the 20 countries hardest hit by COVID-19, in number of confirmed cases. If your country is not among them, your country is not among the 20 countries hardest hit by COVID-19, it does NOT mean that your country is not affected by COVID-19; it does NOT mean that your country is “forgotten” or “excluded” (see point #7 below);

2. Data sources
All data are from the World Health Organisation (WHO), except for Hong Kong (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government), Macau (Macau Special Administrative Region government) and Taiwan (Taiwan Centers for Disease Control);

3. Updates
WHO data are updated once a day, i.e. not as often as data you hear on the radio or read on the internet. “Situation Reports” from the WHO feature data from day X-1 and are released on day X. StatsAnimated processes figures from those reports, and produces a new video within the next 6-7 hours, during the night of day X to day X+1 in Europe. A new StatsAnimated video is therefore released on day X+1 around 6 AM UMT.

4. Recalculations
Values for the following countries differ from those indicated by the WHO, and have been recalculated by StatsAnimated: China (withdrawal of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), Japan (addition of Diamond Princess figures), Denmark (addition of Faroe Islands and Greenland figures), France (addition of French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Saint-Martin (French part), Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Réunion, and Mayotte), the United Kingdom (addition of Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Montserrat, Turks and Caïcos, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands), the Netherlands (addition of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint-Marteen (Dutch part), Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) and the United States of America (addition of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands);

5. Data reliability and accuracy
For some countries, concerns exist as to the accuracy of the figures reported to the WHO (or as to the absence of data reported). We recommend the reading of the following articles:

Brazil: https://bloom.bg/2ydcRu3
China: https://bloom.bg/2VGBOWj
Germany : https://cnb.cx/2zercq8
Nicaragua: https://bit.ly/2RSxaTU
North Korea: https://reut.rs/3cGgabK
Russia: https://nyti.ms/3cbo5gc and https://bit.ly/2TNsQGG
United States of America: https://bit.ly/USdeathcountquestion
Venezuela: https://reut.rs/2Kks6DPBrazil: https://bloom.bg/2ydcRu3

6. Methodological changes
The present section reports on the various methodological changes that affected StatsAnimated videos.

January 21st 2020 – March 15th 2020
Sources – WHO Situation Report data exclusively, with separate entries for Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Palestine and Kosovo;

March 16th 2020 – April 15th 2020
Sources – WHO Situation Report data exclusively, with Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan counts integrated in China entry;

April 16th 2020 – May 6th 2020
Sources – WHO Situation Report data for all countries, except Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (data from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, Macau Special Administrative Region government, and Taiwan Centers for Disease Control respectively, deducted from WHO Situation Report counts for China)

May 7th 2020 – August 12th 2020
Sources – WHO-COVID-19-global-data.csv (downloadable at https://covid19.who.int/ ) for all days except the last day of the data series. For the last day of the data series, values are drawn from the last WHO Situation Report issued, except for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (data from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, Macau Special Administrative Region government, and Taiwan Centers for Disease Control respectively. Data for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are deducted from WHO Situation Report counts for China (as explained in point #4)

August 22nd 2020 - today
Sources – WHO-COVID-19-global-data.csv (downloadable at https://covid19.who.int/), except for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (data from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, Macau Special Administrative Region government, and Taiwan Centers for Disease Control respectively. Data for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are deducted from WHO data counts for China (as explained in point #4)

7. Values not displayed on the chart
For the complete list of final values, including both countries visible in the animated chart and those that are not visible in the animated chart, for all countries reporting the WHO, please visit our Facebook page (link below).

8. Social media
Twitter: @StatsAnimated
Facebook: https://bit.ly/StatsAnimatedFB