Among the new information available are the evolution of vaccination in Brazil, by state and municipality, and the effective reproduction rate, R(t), of the disease
The Geocovid MapBiomas portal (covid.mapbiomas.org), an initiative that combines geotechnological resources with artificial intelligence to monitor and predict the evolution of the covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, has launched a new look and new features. There is more data and visualization options. The new portal is already live and there will be an online event on Thursday (25), at 10 a.m., with a live presentation and debate on the development of this version, on the MapBiomas YouTube channel (@mapbiomasbrasil) and also on Facebook (@mapbiomas).
One of the data points incorporated into the monitoring is the vaccination figures for the whole country, with six types of data: the number of people who received the first dose, those who received the second dose, as well as the vaccination rates per day and the rates per 100,000 inhabitants for each of these groups.
The information on the progress of vaccination also shows the characteristics of those who have received immunization: by age and biological sex, ethnicity, target group (health professionals, the elderly, institutionalized elderly, indigenous peoples, traditional communities, people with disabilities, etc). And also the numbers of the vaccines administered (CoronaVac, Astrazeneca/Oxford or BioNTech/Pfizer).
In addition to the numbers of cases and deaths and their respective rates of evolution per 100,000 inhabitants, the new Geocovid publishes the Effective Reproduction Rate - R(t) of the infection, which is an estimate that shows how much the disease is spreading. If this rate is above 1, it means that each person infected with the coronavirus transmits covid-19 to more than one person on average. Therefore, the tendency is for the number of cases to continue growing. If it's below 1, the curve of new cases will start to slow down.
The projections tab will now have three scenarios: one based on the current contagion rate, another with no flow suppression (social distancing) and a high contagion rate, and a third with high flow suppression and a low contagion rate. All the projections also show the demand curve for ward and ICU beds.
All this information can be viewed at the national, state and municipal scales - available on the previous version of the platform - as well as the new cut-outs by Intermediate Regions, Immediate Regions and Regions (from the IBGE) and Health Regions (from the Unified Health System, SUS).
A national and multidisciplinary network to support the fight against covid-19.
The Geocovid portal was launched a year ago with the aim of monitoring the progress of COVID-19, initially in the municipalities of Bahia, helping health authorities to manage and deal with the pandemic in the state. The great demand from researchers, press professionals and public managers from all over the country led the project to expand nationally. "We realized the need to expand the project to the whole of Brazil, not only because of the need to improve the model, but also to expand the offer of the service to other regions," says Professor Washington Franca-Rocha, professor at the State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS) and coordinator of Geocovid MapBiomas.
That was when the partnership with MapBiomas began. "There were challenges to overcome, such as data entry, which until then had been manual, as well as the need for more storage space and efficient data processing. These challenges were solved with the support of the MapBiomas Brazil Network, which guaranteed the necessary conditions for the scale-up process, and with the talent of Geodatin's analysts, who produced creative solutions to make the portal effective," says Franca-Rocha. In one year, the Geocovid portal has reached more than 220,000 views by more than 70,000 people in 95 countries.
"The new version of the Geocovid MapBiomas portal represents an important and necessary evolution of this service for the population. Not just because of the improvements to the interface and projection algorithms, but because new content has been introduced to the portal, such as R(t) and vaccination data. At this sad time for the country, this portal is a collaborative effort involving different types of actors of which our National ST&I System can certainly be proud," says professor and researcher Gesil Sampaio Amarante Segundo, from the State University of Santa Cruz (UESC) and member of the Scientific Council of the Health Secretariats of the Consortium of Municipalities of the Southern Region of Bahia.
Launch of the new Geocovid MapBiomas
To find out more about the Geocovid portal, an initiative that brings together academic organizations (UEFS, UFBA, UESC, UNEB and IFBA), emerging technology-based companies (GEODATIN and SOLVED) and MapBiomas, take part in the launch on Thursday (25) at 10 a.m., broadcast live on Facebook and On YouTube of MapBiomas.
The event will present how the platform was developed in a multidisciplinary way and will also debate the importance of science and its different fields in combating the covid-19 pandemic.
Event: Launch of the new Geocovid MapBiomas
Date: March 25 (Thursday), 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Live
Youtube: https://youtu.be/Htgds3WSsLI
Facebook: https://bit.ly/39bXpNR
Opening:
Evandro Silva
Rector of UEFS
Panelists:
Washington Franca-Rocha
Professor at PPGM/UEFS
Geocovid MapBiomas Coordinator
Elaine Cristina Cambui Barbosa
Permanent professor at IF/UFBA
Álvaro Fernandes de Abreu Justen
Coordinator of the Brasil.io project
Debaters:
Henrique dos Santos Pereira
Professor at UFAM
Marcio Luis Valença Araújo
Professor do IFBA
Assessor da Secretaria de Saúde da Bahia
Mediation:
Julia Shimbo
MapBiomas scientific coordinator
Information for the press:
Geocovid MapBiomas is an initiative led by the Graduate Program in Modeling in Earth and Environmental Science at UEFS and supported by the MapBiomas Brazil Network.
UEFS
Communications department
ascom@uefs.br
Rede MapBiomas
Communication
Liuca Yonaha – (11) 94186-4029
liuca@ykidigital.com