Project description:

It is a data-driven, and interactive story focusing on how Egypt reached 10,000 of COVID-19 in 89 days since the arrival of the virus in the country on 14 February 2020. The report provides an in-depth analysis of the COVID-19 cases numbers in Egypt in 89 days.

It analyzed the official numbers of deaths, infections and recoveries. Egypt surpassed 10,000 coronavirus case mark during the 13th week of the virus’s outbreak. Over 12 weeks, the total of the virus-related infections reached 7981, including 1887 and 482 fatalities.

The story monitored the development of COVID-19 cases by weeks. 
 

Impact reached:

The project tracked the rise of the COVID-19 cases in 89 days. It offered detailed information with charts, photos, and videos needed for informing the public about how the virus spread across the country. it simplified, analysed, and clarified data, information and official numbers for the public.

The story offered an analysis of the daily increases in deaths, recoveries and infections, providing researchers, journalists and citizens with the explanation they need to understand what is going on on the ground.

After the story was published, many of my colleagues got inspired and encouraged to follow similar storytelling’s tools, resulting in more good data-driven stories.

The story has been appreciated and was selected among other data-driven stories to be shown in a webinar on “digital storytelling tools” for reports on COVID-19. The webinar was organised by the International Center for Journalists and the Facebook Journalism Project.

Techniques/technologies used:

 

In reporting on COVID-19, I mainly used Flourish tool in data visualization and storytelling. Through it, I visualise and represent data of infections and deaths using Line charts and used bar charts for recoveries. I made these reports every week. I also used the Pie chart to clarify the percentages of COVID-19 deaths and recoveries and bar chart race.

The project tracked the rise of the COVID-19 cases in 89 days. It offered detailed information with charts, photos, and videos needed for informing the public about how the virus spread across the country. The story visualised, simplified, analysed, and clarified data, information and official numbers for the public. The story offered an analysis of the daily increases in deaths, recoveries and infections, providing researchers, journalists and citizens with the explanation they need to understand what is going on on the ground. After the story was published, many of my colleagues got inspired and encouraged to follow similar storytelling’s tools, resulting in more good data-driven stories. The story has been appreciated and was selected among other data-driven stories to be shown in a webinar on “digital storytelling tools” for reports on COVID-19. The webinar was organised by the International Center for Journalists and the Facebook Journalism Project.

What was the hardest part of this project?

The hardest part of the mission of tracking and statistically reporting on COVID-19 in Egypt was the paucity of data over the pandemic. Therefore, I depended on the Ministry of Health’s official numbers and built a database for the confirmed coronavirus cases. I used this database to establish connections between data and reveal indicators of the peak and the scale of the outbreak in Egypt. I also depended on alternative data sources in other stories such as a report that track the tours and visits of the Dakahlia governor. The governor was the first official the government announced his infection by the COVID-19. I followed his official visits and the officials he met before the government announced that he contracted the virus. I tracked the official data of the governorate and visualise it using the Knight lab tool.

 

What can others learn from this project?

The story provides an example of data-driven reports on COVID-19 using the Flourish tool in the visualization of the pandemic data in Egypt. It offered journalists a guide to use available data and create data-driven stories that simplify numbers to the public. My story encouraged some colleagues in other newspapers and media websites to follow the method I used in visualising data and digital storytelling and they supported their stories with charts using the Flourish tool.

 

Project links:

almalnews.com/%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF-89-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85%D9%8B%D8%A7-%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%81-%D9%88%D8%B5%D9%84%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D9%84%D9%80-10-%D8%A2%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%85%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%A8-%D8%A8%D9%81/

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2v4Z1u32u0

docs.google.com/document/d/1MV1RviF8lOsg0z8ptRJSXSWJZ7DdZENt_tEOD-yBuQg/edit?usp=sharing

almalnews.com/%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%87%D9%85-3-%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%82%D8%A7%D8%A1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D8%AC%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%87/

almalnews.com/100-%d9%8a%d9%88%d9%85-%d9%85%d9%86-%d9%83%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%88%d9%86%d8%a7-%d9%85%d8%ad%d8%a7%d8%b5%d8%b1%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%81%d9%8a%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b3-%d8%a8%d8%b9%d8%b2%d9%84-%d8%a7/