Historical data expanation request about covid-19-data

[edomt]

Hi @hjstein,

For confirmed cases and deaths, our data comes from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). We discuss how and when the ECDC collects and publishes this data here.

Importantly, the ECDC follows a general rule of not changing past values in its data. If cases/deaths are reported with a lag—a general lag, as you described, or occasional 'blocks' of new data—these new cases/deaths will be added on the date that the country reported them to the ECDC.

Edouard

[hjstein]

@edomt - Thanks for the information. So that means that the ECDC data misstates the actual number of cases and deaths for a given day. When a site is late enough in reporting a count, the numbers will be reduced for that date and increased for a later date. This will likely flatten out the data, making the growth rate appear slower than it actually is, and make the peak appear later. That's unfortunate.