NCHD updates its COVID-19 dashboard
New features added, some old ones dropped as they become irrelevant
The Northeast Colorado Health Department has updated its COVID-19 dashboard with improved navigation, combined case and vaccination data, and more informative details.
Mary Brumage, public information officer for NCHD, said the new dashboard will be updated three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by 10 a.m. The data also will scale appropriately to be viewable from mobile devices.
New navigation buttons across the top of the dashboard will allow users to view detailed case, hospitalization, death, and vaccination data, as well as an overview button that includes an at-aglance summary of the sixcounty health district. The default view is reported cases in the health district within the last seven days, but filters allow users to view different timeframes and specific counties.
Brumage said additional improvements include removing the incarcerated population filtering option and active cases chart.
“That information has become less relevant over time and is no longer an accurate representation of what is occurring in the community,” Brumage said. “However, we continue to track all outbreaks, including those among incarcerated, long-term care facilities, and schools, so that information is available for decision-makers when needed.”
The most significant revision was with the way in which COVID-19 deaths are reported. Previously reported deaths were among cases with COVID-19, which included 331 total, some of whose primary cause of death was not COVID-19. Now, with access to more detailed Vital Statistics data, the dashboard now reports deaths due to COVID-19, meaning there are 311 total deaths in NCHD’S health district which COVID-19 was listed as the cause of death on the death certificate.
Brumage pointed out that there are often lags in deaths reported
due to the time it takes to process death certificates and identify the cause of death. Death data is updated once a week and is grouped monthly to better see the trends over time. In addition, any months with 3 or fewer deaths are suppressed due to privacy.
For any questions regarding the changes or NCHD data in general, the public can contact Shanna Wisdom, Data Analyst, at shannaw@nchd.org or 970- 522- 3741, Ext. 1273