Comparing and Integrating US COVID-19 Daily Data from Multiple Sources: A County-Level Dataset with Local Characteristics
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Over the past several months, the outbreak of COVID-19 has been expanding over the world. A reliable and accurate dataset of the cases is vital for scientists to conduct related research and for policy-makers to make better decisions. We collect the COVID-19 daily reported data from four open sources: the New York Times, the COVID-19 Data Repository by Johns Hopkins University, the COVID Tracking Project at the Atlantic, and the USAFacts, and compare the similarities and differences among them. In addition, we examine the following problems which occur frequently: (1) the order dependencies violation, (2) outliers and abnormal observations, and (3) the delay-reported issue on weekends and/or holidays. We also integrate the COVID-19 reported cases with the county-level auxiliary information of the local features from official sources, such as health infrastructure, demographic, socioeconomic, and environment information, which are important for understanding the spread of the virus.
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