COVID-19 European regional tracker

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Data Science

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated granular data for understanding transmission patterns.
• Sub-national data is crucial for targeted public health interventions.
• Existing data sources were fragmented and lacked standardization across European countries.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create a harmonized, sub-national dataset of daily COVID-19 cases for 26 European countries.
• To facilitate disaggregated spatial analysis of the pandemic's impact.
• To provide a replicable data resource for researchers.

Main Methods:

• Identification and processing of country-level data sources.
• Homogenization of data to NUTS 2 or NUTS 3 administrative levels.
• Detailed discussion of data strengths and weaknesses.
• Provision of data, code, and spatial layers in an online repository.

Main Results:

• A comprehensive panel dataset of daily COVID-19 cases at the NUTS 2/3 level for 26 European countries.
• Highlights the spatial distribution of cases within and between countries.
• Data is available for replication and further analysis.

Conclusions:

• The developed tracker provides a valuable resource for granular analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.
• The data supports research into the spatial epidemiology of infectious diseases.
• Monthly updates ensure the tracker remains current and expands coverage.