NEWS

Interactive COVID-19 Data Dashboard Unveiled, Older Adults Reprioritized in Vaccine Plan

Jan 6, 2021

Based on this recommendation of the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory group, the Baker Administration has updated prioritization so that individuals age 75+ are included in Phase 2, Group 1, along with individuals of all ages with 2+ comorbidities.

This follows revised recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP) issued on December 22. Following the ACIP change, the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 Advisory Group convened December 23 and 30 to discuss any changes to its previous recommendations were warranted. The Group came to consensus on a single change to the current recommendations, taking into particular consideration ACIP’s highlighting of individuals age 75 and older as being at particular risk of serious complications of COVID-19.

In addition, the Administration launched a new interactive COVID-19 dashboard contains all the data elements of the current daily dashboard in addition to some of the elements from the weekly dashboard, such as the positivity rate and the testing rate for cities and towns. This interactive feature will allow users to view all the data points from the daily dashboard and several from the weekly dashboard live on the website, with an added ability to customize the data view. For example, users may explore data by focusing on certain data points or a specific period of time.

New interactive features offer the ability for users to:

  • select specific timeframes through a date filter
  • hover over certain sections for further explanation and more details
  • view specific information like the positivity rate and the testing rate for different cities and towns by both map and bar chart

While the new interactive format has been designed to improve the user experience, the many data points currently being reported remain the same, including:

  • COVID-19 overview and trends
  • cases, testing, hospitalization and deaths
  • higher education and long term care facility data
  • breakdowns by city and town

Researchers and others interested in the raw data still have the ability to see and download the raw files from the website, as can be done currently.  The Department of Public Health will continue to refine the data available on the new dashboard, with additional enhancements planned in early 2021. The new dashboard, powered by Tableau, will be available on the current webpage.