Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger may no longer be in the company, but we’ll always remember them as the founders of Instagram. Two years after they left the company, the duo have reunited to launch a coronavirus tracking website called COVID-19.
The website can be accessed here, showing the speed of the virus spread for each state across the US. It all looks very technical to the average user, but we’ll try to explain it to you. Like its site name, Rt is actually a key measure to see how fast the virus is growing. If you look at the graph, areas with Rt above 1 indicates that the virus will spread quicker, while areas with Rt below 1 will mean fewer cases.
Based on the information provided, the current states with the highest rates of infection are North Dakota, Ohio and South Carolina. On the other hand, Connecticut holds the lowest infection rate. Systrom also explained in a blog post why Rt is used instead of Ro — the basic reproduction number of an epidemic that shows the number of secondary infections based on a single infection.
Many individuals and organizations have already begun their efforts in helping combat COVID-19. Just a while back, Apple and Google even announced a partnership to develop contact tracing technology to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
