Building a statistical surveillance dashboard for COVID-19 infection worldwide

When a pandemic like the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) breaks out, it is important that authorities, healthcare organizations and official decision makers, have in place an effective monitoring system to promptly analyze data, create new insights into problematic areas and generate actionable knowledge for fact-based decision making. The aim of this article is to describe an initial work focused on building a comprehensive statistical surveillance dashboard for the epidemic of COVID-19, which can be exploited also for future needs. We propose novel ways of exploring, analyzing and presenting data, using metrics that have not been used previously. We also show the steps necessary to build and operate such a dashboard. As a result of this this work, a set of data exploration and data visualization tools have been proposed which can be instrumental in providing information necessary to manage a crisis like COVID-19 pandemic in a systematic and effective way. The proposed statistical surveillance dashboard can provide formal authorities and other decision makers with valuable insights into problematic areas and help them make critical decisions based on facts and an in-depth data analysis. The dashboard is implemented in an online dedicated website, freely accessible to the readership of this journal.