CLEVELAND — The coronavirus pandemic has researchers around the world working in overdrive to create solutions to lessen and ultimately eliminate the impacts of the crippling disease. New developments are being released everyday, including from right here in Northeast Ohio.
On Wednesday, researchers at Case Western Reserve University announced that they have developed a new tool to help citizens better assess the risk of COVID-19 based on geographic location, in real-time.
The tool, called Alpha-satellite, is driven by artificial intelligence and "designed to automatically provide community-level risk estimates to help people protect themselves while minimizing disruptions to daily life to the extent possible." said Yanfang (Fanny) Ye and associate professor at the Case School of Engineering, in a press release.
The tool, now available to the public, uses four types of data to generate the risk estimate of going anywhere in the United States:
- County based COVID-19 Information
- Demographic date from the census bureau
- Mobility data from google Maps
- User -generated date from social media sites like Reddit, exploring scientific discussions and policy implications of COVID-19.
How it works?
A user selects a location on a Google Map or enters the address. The tool then calculates a number indicating the estimated risk in that area or location based on the previously mentioned data.
With the estimated risk, the user can compare the relative risk "the higher the number, the greater the risk—of going to that precise location to other nearby sites, to the surrounding county, to another county or even the state of Ohio," according to the release.
Researchers have been working on the tool since Early March and are looking for feedback on how to improve functionality. For more information and to leave feedback, click here.
As of Wednesday afternoon, there are now 2,547 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ohio. 65 people have died and 679 more are hospitalized.
Click here for our complete coronavirus section.
3News' Russ Mitchel discussed the current state of the pandemic with Ohio Department of Health Director, Amy Acton. Watch their full interview in the player below: