https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8507-1726
To the Editor—Infection with the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a pandemic and has caused many deaths worldwide. Therefore, an accurate grasp of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation is considered highly important. Several websites provide useful information about COVID-19, such as the global coronavirus dashboard hosted by Johns Hopkins University (https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6) [1]. However, few sites provide a transition of the COVID-19 situation over time. Thus, on 23 March 2020, we launched a website to track the transition of new COVID-19 cases and deaths per population by country (https://web.sapmed.ac.jp/canmol/coronavirus/index_e.html). Within this site, which is updated daily, graphs are presented of COVID-19 cases and deaths per 1 million population over time based on European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control [2, 3], World Health Organization situation reports [4] and population data of the United Nations [5], and one can easily grasp the trend of COVID-19 and adequately compare the situation between countries through this interactive graph system. The graphs of trajectory analysis are also available.
As an example easily obtained on the website, the transition of COVID-19 cases and deaths over time in several G20 countries is presented in Figure 1. The chart indicates that countries except for Japan have nearly the same increase ratio (ie, the slopes of the graph are parallel on a logarithmic scale), whereas the increase ratio is obviously lower in Japan than in other countries for both cases and deaths. The reason for the difference is currently unclear and the situation continues to be unpredictable.
Transition of coronavirus disease 2019 cases (A) and deaths (B) per 1 million population by country. Dates are presented as year/month/day.
This website is provided not only for researchers but for anybody interested in the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that a proper understanding of the COVID-19 situation in each country will help people maintain adequate social distancing behaviors, resulting in the suppression of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Note
Potential conflicts of interest. The authors: No reported conflicts of interest. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest.
