COVID-19: an overview of the main facts, data and publications

I thought it might be useful to get an overview of the most important sources on the COVID-19 outbreak.

If you have suggestions feel free to post them in the thread below and I'll try to update the info here. Please focus on the most important sources otherwise we will have too many links instead of a useful overview.


General information and FAQ
WHO: https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

Harvard University: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-resource-center

CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html


Data - global
Both the WHO and John Hopkins University give an overview of COVID-19 data reported worldwide. The WHO has daily situation reports and a dashboard to get a quick overview. John Hopkins also maintains an interactive map and gives an overview of sources here.

Also useful is the website Our world in data which provides a rich overview of all sorts of official COVID-19 data and many charts.

Overview by the European Centre for disease control and prevention: https://qap.ecdc.europa.eu/public/extensions/COVID-19/COVID-19.html

91-DIVOC An interactive visualization of the exponential spread of COVID-19: http://91-divoc.com/pages/covid-visualization/

Worldometer: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

Data - per country
For data per country, you have to look at the government agencies that report the official figures. This isn’t always easy to find so I thought it might be useful to make an overview focusing on countries that are either doing a lot of test (like South-Korea and Germany) or that have a lot of cases (like Italy and China).

China: daily updates here: http://www.nhc.gov.cn/yjb/pzhgli/new_list.shtml.

Italy: daily updates here: https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus/aggiornamenti

Spain: daily updates here: https://covid19.isciii.es/

South-Korea: daily updates here: https://www.cdc.go.kr/board/board.es?mid=a30402000000&bid=0030

Germany: daily updates here: https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/Situationsberichte/Gesamt.html

USA: daily updates here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html

France: daily updates here: https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/...ronavirus-sars-cov-2-covid-19-france-et-monde

UK: daily updates here: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/f94c3c90da5b4e9f9a0b19484dd4bb14

 

Scientific reports
I thought it might also be useful to get an overview of the most important scientific publications (including pre-prints) and government reports, although it may not be easy to keep updating this list as things change very fast.

Overview and government reports:
The most important publication on COVID-19 to date is still the WHO report on the situation in China from February 28: https://www.who.int/docs/default-so...na-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf

Another main publication is this report by CDC China on more than 44.000 confirmed cases: http://www.ourphn.org.au/wp-content/uploads/20200225-Article-COVID-19.pdf

Clinical characteristics
Guan et al. Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China.

Huang et al. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China

Wang et al. Clinical Characteristics of 138 Hospitalized Patients With 2019 Novel Coronavirus–Infected Pneumonia in Wuhan, China

Zhou et al. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study.

Dong et al. Epidemiological Characteristics of 2143 Pediatric Patients With 2019 Coronavirus Disease in China

Fatality rate
Russel et al. Estimating the infection and case fatality ratio for COVID-19 using age-adjusted data from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Wu et al. Estimating clinical severity of COVID-19 from the transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China

Spread
Doremalen et al. Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1.

Li et al. Substantial undocumented infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2).

Bi et al. Epidemiology and Transmission of COVID-19 in Shenzhen China: Analysis of 391 cases and 1,286 of their close contacts

Nishiura et al. Estimation of the asymptomatic ratio of novel coronavirus infections (COVID-19)

Testing
Ai et al. Correlation of Chest CT and RT-PCR Testing in Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China: A Report of 1014 Cases.

Biology of SARS-CoV-2
Lu et al. Genomic characterisation and epidemiology of 2019 novel coronavirus: implications for virus origins and receptor binding

Treatments and interventions
Ferguson et al. Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID19 mortality and healthcare demand.

Gautret et al. Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an openlabel non-randomized clinical trial (This study was in the media a lot but has been criticized for poor methodology, for example here).

 

News articles, graphs and blogs
Thomas Pueyo, Medium: Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now (10/03/2020).

Thomas Pueyo, Medium: Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance (19/03/2020)

Financial times: Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as the pandemic spreads | Free to read

Sanne Blauw, De Correspondent: Deciphering the pandemic: a guide to understanding the coronavirus numbers. (17/03/2020).

Andreas Backhaus, Medium: Coronavirus: why it’s so deadly in Korea (13/03/2020).

Yascha Mounk, the Atlantic. Cancel Everything (10/03/2020).

Information on COVID-19 for ME patients
Jennifer Spotila. A New Virus and ME (03/03/2020).

ME Action has collected a comprehensive overview of COVID-19 resources for ME/CFS patients: https://www.meaction.net/covid-19/

 

Thank you @Michiel Tack, for this comprehensive information; your time, and the effort/energy to put it together.

 

Also in scientific reports
The most recent CDC MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

(This quote stood out to me)
“....SARS-CoV-2 RNA was identified on a variety of surfaces in cabins of both symptomatic and asymptomatic infected passengers up to 17 days after cabins were vacated on the Diamond Princess but before disinfection procedures had been conducted (Takuya Yamagishi, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, personal communication, 2020). ...” https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e3.htm?s_cid=mm6912e3_w

 

Thanks Denise, but it could be that these were just bits and pieces of RNA, not necessarily the whole virus that could still infect people.

ME researcher Michael VanElzakker tweeted about this:
https://twitter.com/user/status/1242482632883154944

 

He's soooo right that CDC should have been clearer about this! Thanks!

 

@Michiel Tack is correct about that 17 days number being misleading. CDC just posted a correction this morning.

Code:

https://twitter.com/CDCgov/status/1242860162458759168

https://twitter.com/user/status/1242860162458759168

 

Merged thread

Informative Background Reports on Pandemic Issues

I have come across a series of reports from one of the most prominent epidemiological
"think tanks" in the US, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). I have found the reports extremely useful in understanding the often confusing landscape of the Covid-19 pandemic, regardless of geographic area. The Center will continue to add to the series, so I will try to be prompt in adding new reports as they are published.

Part 1: "The future of the COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned from pandemic influenza" (Apr 30, 2020)

Part 2: "Effective COVID-19 crisis communication" (May 6, 2020)

Part 3: "Smart testing for COVID-19 virus and antibodies" (May 20, 2020)