The data dashboard, developed by a team in the Department of Health, has been shortlisted in the New Generation social and digital media awards, in the category “Best use of technical innovation”. This is the only government department to be shortlisted across any of the award categories, and our dashboard finds itself in good company amid work from some of South Africa’s largest brands and companies.
The dashboard was built so that the Western Cape Government could share reliable data with members of the public, that they could use to keep themselves informed throughout the pandemic. It allows anyone to see data and statistics for the province at a glance. It is updated daily, showing the number of cases, and recoveries per sub-district, as well as the number of tests conducted and the total number of deaths recorded.
The dashboard has also recently been updated with additional features which allow residents to see the number of active cases by sub-district, recovered cases by sub-district, recoveries per 100 000 and total cases by sub-district.
Since its launch at the end of April, the dashboard has had over 1.3 million unique visitors which demonstrates its value and usefulness to the residents of the Western Cape.
As a government, our response to COVID-19 has been evidence driven and data led, and the dashboard is example of how we have used innovation and big data to make information accessible to the public. We send our congratulations to the team involved, and wish them well for the winners’ announcements, which will be made later this month.