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Rukmini S
@Rukmini
Replying to
@Rukmini
I'm not sure how many people realise that India - one of the countries the worst affected by covid and a tech powerhouse - has no official website for detailed covid data. A volunteer-driven crowd-sourced website has been the source for everyone (including govt at times).
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Rukmini S
@Rukmini
There's just simply no excuse for this. People of every political stripe should be able to agree that not having a govt website for district-level, historical and downloadable covid data is just not acceptable. It wasn't ok in 2020 and it's appalling in 2021.
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Rukmini S
@Rukmini
covid19india.org aggregated data from official sources - Twitter handles of mayors, state govt websites, municipal commissioner's FB pages - and credible media. They weren't creating new data sources. It's great that they started it but the govt should have taken the baton
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Rukmini S
@Rukmini
The folks at covid19india.org have jobs and lives and they've given 1.5 years of their time, pro bono and and refusing to seek credit, to create this incredible national resource. Indian govt - it's time to step up, get in touch with them, and continue the work they began.
covid19india.org
Coronavirus in India: Latest Map and Case Count
A volunteer-driven crowdsourced effort to track the coronavirus in India. A detailed country map shows the extent of the coronavirus outbreak, with tables of the number of cases by state and district.
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Rukmini S
@Rukmini
Legends
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covid19indiaorg
@covid19indiaorg
Replying to @Rukmini
Appreciate that. We also wanted to put a note that we won't disappear taking the ship down with us! We've stood for openness, transparency and public good. In line with that, we will be doing what we can do document our process to make this easier.
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covid19indiaorg
@covid19indiaorg
Replying to
@Rukmini
Hi Rukmini - We've discussed about the lack of a 'comparable' alternative many times internally. Frankly the #1 reason for us to keep going was the lack of alternative, especially with the backend data repository.
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covid19indiaorg
@covid19indiaorg
Replying to
@covid19indiaorg
and
@Rukmini
We believe that the open source data repository is the real asset, especially as it's one of the only source for analysts, researchers and statisticians. And we wanted to sustain building and maintaining it over the last 1.5 years. Anyway, looking ahead:
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Radha
@radharep
Replying to
@Rukmini
One of the reasons they give for stopping operations is that there are credible alternatives including from MoHFW & ICMR. Not true? (Asking this only because your thread seems to suggest there is no alternative even today.)
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