Instagram founders have launched a new COVID-19 tracking website. which brings live state-by-state updates on the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. However, as of now, the website shows the updates of states in the US only and not from around the globe. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have launched the website RT. live using a statistic called an effective reproduction number. The stats are calculated by tracking the average number of people who catch the virus from a single infected person.
The higher above the number 1, the faster COVID-19 races through a population. On the other hand, if the number is less than 1 then that will mean that the virus is receding. For example, RT.live displays that Georgia has the highest, most dangerous Rt score of 1.5 while New York is down to 0.54 in the app, regions can be filtered so that one can see how the other states are doing in suppressing COVID-19.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Systrom said, “if it’s above one, that means it’s growing very quickly, and if it’s below one, that means things are under control. We are trying to take what is a complex topic and boil it down to a simple number that anyone can view from their home.”
“That’s why this dashboard is so important because it gives you live insight into the effects of the choices we all make,” he added. While Instagram was a great success for the founders, they left Facebook in late 2018 after clashing with CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Now, the new COVID-19 tacking website, they are not sure whether it would turn into a company.
