COVID-19 Spread in Nashville

In this project, a team of three analysts examined several available data sources on COVID-19 spread in the Metropolitan Nashville area from March through November, 2020.

Data Utilized

• hubNashville 311 Service Requests: Reported violations of COVID-related rules and regulations are contained in this dataset where Request Type is COVID-19 and Subrequest Type is COVID-19 Violations

• clusters.csv was scraped from the wsmv website and geocoded using the Google API. The dataset provides detail for COVID-19 clusters (groupings of 10 or more cases identified by the Metro Public Health Department through its case investigation process).

• Data from the nytimes/covid-19-data repository is loaded weekly to a PostgreSQL database on AWS. Tables in this database include:
  The running total of cases and deaths for US counties reported daily since 3/8/2020, and results from online interviews conducted by Dynata for the NYT between July 2 and July 14, 2020. Participants were asked How often do you wear a mask in public when you expect to be within six feet of another person?

• businesses.csv is a geocoded dataset pulled using the Google API. This dataset includes addresses from hubNashville of reported violations, and related Google results for the closest five businesses to that address.

Dig In

• This map animation allows one to examine particular areas of Nashville and/or times during the studied months and view where the reported violations and clusters appeared. The cluster markers have a decay of 30 days and the violation markers have a decay of 5 days.

• Review the full presentation here.

What We Found

• There was a strong correspondence between the rate of reported violations and rate of COVID cases during summer (with peaks in July), but the relationship between them drops off toward October/November with rising cases and many fewer violations reported.

• The NYT mask use survey shows that attitudes toward the use of masks in Davidson county tracks as more positive to their use versus the country as a whole, while Tennessee's perspective on the same question skewed strongly more negative. 8% of US residents, 11% of Tennesseans, and 4% of Nashvillians said they'd 'Never' used a mask for the purpose of COVID prevention. 51% / 42% / 62% respectively, said they always used a mask when in public since the onset of the pandemic.

• The top zip codes for reported violations were 37203 (Broadway business district, downtown), 37211 (South Nashville, Nolensville Pike), 37209 (Midtown business district along Charlotte Pike west of downtown).

• Clusters of cases were most frequently identified in locations where large groups of people reside together including long term care, correctional, and congregate living.