The Coronavirus impact. Do we know how much it affects us?

In a situation like this, data visualizations become a necessary routine to know how the pandemic is evolving. And it cannot be denied that data analytics is having a fundamental role since the arrival of the Coronavirus COVID-19.

Coronavirus-COVID-19 as the focus of all statistics

If we look back, the statistics about health have always been with us: percentage and data on lifestyles, drug consumption, food... and a long list of other things that are now in the shadow of a unique topic of global interest. This virus, which is affecting a large part of the planet, is attracting all the attention and this is because its consequences will not leave indifferent any member of today’s society and maybe the future one.

Many companies, using their knowledge about the world of data, are doing a thorough job of tracking and shaping all the data of interest, in order to offer reliable and readable sources of information.

How Coronavirus-COVID-19 will affect: consequences beyond the contagions

Although the state of the curve, the number of infections or the number of deaths are the main issues of this pandemic, there are other indicators that give us many clues about how the current situation generated by the Coronavirus COVID-19 will affect all areas of our lives in the future.

Considering the above, at this point we should ask ourselves what other factors in our lives will be affected by the arrival of a virus like this one. If there is one thing that subject researchers are sure of, it is the great scope it will have over time and on a global level.

These are some of the areas that are already showing the consequences of the Coronavirus:

• Air sector. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts ** a 38% fall in demand for the whole year in comparison with 2019 **, which is the biggest crisis suffered by the aviation industry ever. This effect does not go unnoticed in the images that compare air traffic between 8 March and 28 March.

• Mental health, another victim of the Coronavirus. Both for those people who are doing a strict confinement, without leaving home and sharing 24/7 space with other family members, and for those others who extend their working hours, with little time to rest (doctors, security forces or cleaning services, among others). Data on hospitalisations due to mental health episodes or suicide rates will be indicators that show the impact on this area.

• The increase in the use of products such as flour or yeast for bread reflects the culinary trend that is invading many of the homes where there is now time to cook. This is just a small sample of the changes that this situation has generated in product search trends . Other affected areas are Entertainment, Tools and methodologies for remote work, Online Education, Online applications, Games, Clothing or Medicine.

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• The data about the supply of other products that are being especially demanded, such as toilet paper or hydroalcoholic gel, also show a brutal growth, which translates in continuous shortages. This, in turn, is a symptom of the panic that society is experiencing.

• Encouraging environmental data: improvements in air quality, crystalline water or animals appearing in the space commonly frequented by humans, are just some of the consequences of traffic or a large part of the factories having stopped.

• Employment and how this situation will affect the loss of employment for millions of people. The most affected sectors are tourism, restaurants, shops and factories, where the losses will mean closures and dismissals. In The New York Times they reflect with data the effect of the virus in the unemployment applications.

• Changes in the way of working, remote working as something new and necessary. There are many people who have been immersed in a completely new methodology of work, which requires changes and commitment not only by the worker, but also by the rest of the people who live with him/her.

The list of consequences could be much more extensive, since the Coronavirus has meant a highly significant change at a global level and the above are just some of the areas affected. Data Analysis will allow us to continue knowing the advance, as well as to anticipate in the search of possible solutions, since we cannot relax in front of those effects that have not yet shown their face and in which we have not even stopped to think.

Bearing this in mind, it is worth reflecting on how to use all the information that comes to us, to make the most of it, so that it is valid for more than just counting infected people; or what is the same, that it is useful to make productive use of it based on a detailed analysis of the situation.