Coronavirus has turned into a pandemic with the virus affecting more than 2/3 of the whole world. First appeared in the city of Wuhan, China; the disease has reached more than 125 countries, including the US and many European and Asian regions. After China, Italy, and France are the most affected countries with the number of cases rising every day. China has reported that the frequency of new cases has decreased rapidly over the weeks, but there are new cases every day.
In the case of financial markets, the S&P500 index and many big financial markets have witnessed losses like the great recession of 2007. A few days back, S&P global plummeted and was closed before the official day ended. China, on the other hand, is recovering from the initial losses though, the recovery speed is meager. European and Asian markets are consistently showing lower activities.
Although the media is reporting the statistics of the disease in many countries, there are regions where media is either restricted or virus has affected service. So, it is difficult for people to asses (to a certain degree of authenticity) the situation in these particular regions. To help with that, Microsoft has introduced a coronavirus dashboard in its search engine, Bing. Head over to the link here to see the dashboard. It can be used to track how the pandemic is affecting a particular region.
It attracts information from multiple authentic sources such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Center for Disease and Prevention, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the regional media.
The Interactive map shows the total number of active, recovered, and fatal cases in a specific region. When you hover the mouse on the area, it shows the statistics of the cases. When you click on the specific region, it shows regional news regarding the COVID-19. At the moment, the map only has data regarding the sub-states in the US alone. It will be added later for other regions in a short while. The map updates with the news rather efficiently; in our experience, it updates depending upon the area. On average, the map updates every 20 minutes.
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Authenticity
The statistics regarding the virus itself seem authentic if you compare it with your local news agencies. On the other hand, the detailed videos that the dashboard is displaying is not up to date. Most of the videos have been extracted from non-authentic sources such as YouTube. Microsoft is working on improving the dashboard with updated videos from authentic sources.
On the other hand, Google is also making a similar tool, too, that will help people gauge the situation. The CEO of Google has promised that the initial version of the site will be live later in the week or early next week.
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