Abstract
Background
The principal objective of this paper is to introduce an online interactive application that helps in real-time monitoring of the COVID-19 pandemic in Catalonia, Spain (PandemonCAT).
Methods
This application is designed as a collection of user-friendly dashboards using open-source R software supported by the Shiny package.
Results
PandemonCAT reports accumulated weekly updates of COVID-19 dynamics in a geospatial interactive platform for individual Basic Health Areas (ABSs) of Catalonia. It also shows, on a georeferenced map, the evolution of vaccination campaigns representing the share of the population with either one or two doses of the vaccine, for different age groups.
In addition, the application reports information about environmental and socioeconomic variables and also provides an interactive interface to visualize monthly public mobility before, during, and after the lockdown phases.
Finally, we report the smoothed standardized COVID-19 infected cases and mortality rates on maps of Basic Health Areas (ABSs) and regions of Catalonia. These smoothed rates allow users to explore geographic patterns in incidence and mortality. The visualization of variables that could influence the spatiotemporal dynamics of the pandemic is demonstrated.
Conclusions
We believe the addition of these new dimensions —which is the key innovation of our project— will improve the current understanding of the spread and impact of COVID-19 in the community. This application can be used as an open tool for consultation by the public of Catalonia and Spain in general. It could also help facilitate the visualization of public health data, allowing timely interpretation given the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.