S’porean Creates Online Map to Allow Users to Conveniently Track All Places Visited by COVID-19 Cases

Note: don’t open this if you’re a paranoid germaphobe.

But if you aren’t, great! You can continue to read on.

As great as it is that the government keeps us up to date with COVID-19 cases through the Gov.sg WhatsApp bot, the information can be overwhelming.

Especially if you’re sifting through document after document checking where the infected individuals have been, all the words and places seem to lose meaning after a while.

If only there was a way to visualise them…

S’porean Creates Online Map for Tracking Of COVID-19 Cases

Well, you’re in luck because there is now a solution to this problem!

Mr Wayne Tay has created a website where users can easily identify the places that COVID-19 cases visited during their infectious period.

Taking to Facebook, Mr Tay wrote, “MOH’s list of visited places is too lengthy. Making this help others to visualise the list of places visited by covid-19 cases in Singapore.”

(I’m looking at the map right now, and I can see that most of the red markers are located on the Eastern side of Singapore. As a loyal Northeastie, this is a big L for me.)

Mr Tay’s post has since garnered over 100 likes and 65 shares, with many comments thanking him for the effort put into this useful resource.

He notes that he had created the entire web application in just 36 hours with a mere six hours of sleep in between. In addition, he will be updating the website every day and refining it as much as possible.

What a mad lad. But on behalf of all Singaporeans, we thank him for his efforts. Going by the comments, it’s safe to say that his effort has paid off!

Details

How exactly does this website work? Mr Tay explained that by clicking the markers on the Google map, users will be able to view the venue, time and date of COVID-19 cases visiting the area.

If you think that there’s just way too many markers on the map, it’s precisely because there are.

“I intentionally put it that way and choose not to combine the markers together when zoomed out so that more people can realise that each marker on average, actually represents a covid visited place.

“With that many markers everywhere, it is the time to stay even more vigilant and careful so that we can protect our love [sic] ones (especially for our aging [sic] parents).”

Furthermore, according to MustShareNews, users can also send in details of a COVID-19 case through WhatsApp or Telegram. You’ll even be able to check if you’ve been possibly exposed to the case by sending the details to your TraceTogether account, using SafeEntry records.

On Creating The Web Application

In his post, Mr Tay mentioned that when the surge in COVID-19 cases began last week, he wanted to improve a flawed aspect of our COVID-19 response. He also wanted to show others how infectious the virus could be in the form of a Google map.

“MOH’s releases list of places visited by covid-19 cases daily but in recent days, the data gets too huge for people to even bother looking at the list that MOH release every night. Being able to visualise it will help others to be more aware that they visited those places and be aware of their body if any symptoms arises [sic].”

The primary goal of his project is to help Singaporeans visualise the list of places visited and he hopes that others can benefit from his work by avoiding areas with “a higher ‘hit’ rate of covid cases”.

“Saying this is not with the intention to bash other people’s businesses by discouraging them to avoid those areas but really, to think twice about heading over to those areas,” he said, urging Singaporeans to stay home.

Ultimately, he hopes that this project would help tide Singaporeans through this tough time and encouraged users to share it around in order to stay safe.

Feature Image: Facebook (Weihan Tay)