How Canada built a COVID-19 reporting tool in 72 hours

At the height of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the Canadian government marshalled numerous resources to create a cloud-based platform tracking cases across the country. Government official Éric Loubier said this platform allowed decision-makers to access the data swiftly and efficiently to not only map novel coronavirus (COVID-19) spread, but also determine its effects on vulnerable populations. Loubier briefly described the platform Wednesday (July 22) saying the COVID-19 tracker is largely based on geographic information systems (GIS) that capture and display data relative to positions that can be mapped on the Earth's surface. Loubier was the opening keynote speaker at the GeoIgnite conference, an annual event for the geospatial community that's gone online this year. "It enables responders to focus their resources on where it is needed to go," he said of the power of GIS more generally, which came to the fore with this COVID-19 case study. Canada reached the peak of the "first wave" of coronavirus cases around mid-April, although some local populations saw different timings. Lockdowns began across the country in mid-March; while many jurisdictions are lessening restrictions, managing COVID-19 will be a long-term problem until a vaccine can be developed. In Canada, GIS and geomatics capabilities were already being tested in early 2020 even before coronavirus hit, said Loubier, who is director-general of the Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation at Natural Resources Canada. There were massive snowfalls in Newfoundland and Labrador, spring flooding in multiple jurisdictions, and a national railway protest that affected critical infrastructure, he said. In all of these cases, he added, geospatial capability was at the forefront of the government's response. So it made sense to turn to similar datasets to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Luckily, geomatics is quickly reaching new heights of capability through machine learning – which allows computer networks to make predictions after being trained through a dataset – along with a suite of smaller and less costly Earth-gazing satellites from private and public organizations launched in recent years. The combination of more data, coupled with more efficient ways of parsing that data, means it is easier for decision-makers to decide where is best to go, Loubier said. "We can bring more value and improve our service to deliver to Canadians," he said. As COVID-19 broke across Canada, government departments with geospatial expertise came together to support the Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada's chief public health officer Theresa Tam, and her epidemiological teams, Loubier said. Around early to mid-March, there were "literally hundreds of dashboards being published" across the world, Loubier said; by contrast, Canada wanted the ability to see all the crucial data for the country in a single area. Creating the Canadian dashboard was a massive effort, involving collaborations across public and private agencies because no single organization has all the information, Loubier noted. But once the data was put together, it was easier for the Red Cross and government organizations to deploy resources where needed. The data was standardized, allowing for epidemiological analyses. The dashboard has been viewed millions of times, including being shown from time to time behind Tam while she is doing media conferences. Loubier pointed to many lessons learned from the dashboard that could be implemented for the next national crisis in Canada, whether it is a natural disaster, another medical crisis or some sort of social situation. Data should be standardized and accessible for those who need it, particularly for emergency responders who need information "at a moment's notice," he said. Privacy needs to be weighed with the ability to track where people are going and who they are meeting with; such "contact tracing" is believed to be helpful in fighting COVID-19, but there also are concerns about other implications from watching the public's movements so closely. Even if the COVID-19 crisis ends, Loubier said, Canadian life has changed so drastically that everyone "may never go back." As examples, he pointed to the federal reshaping of public safety protocols, and the push to move public servants quickly to working from home in a digital environment. Numerous government departments are weighing a more permanent work-from-home situation for their workers, which could have large impacts on cities such as Ottawa that have a substantial percentage of their workforce in the public service. "These are big issues to tackle," Loubier said of managing public safety going forward, "but this is our new normal." The Geoignite 2020 conference continues online until Friday (July 24), under the theme "Leadership in Times of Innovation."