An online platform for the monitoring, analysis and mapping of the geographical distribution and evolution of the coronavirus pandemic (Web-GIS) has been created by the GeoCHOROS research team of the National Geographic and Space Research Laboratory of the National Technical University of Athens.

"Unlike other platforms, it is the only one that gives a true picture of the size and magnitude of the problem, in each country and worldwide, and makes it easier for the visitor to make comparisons, even estimates of evolution," the research group said.

In addition to the number of cases, deaths, and recoveries, the rate of disease progression for different time periods can be visualised; overall, on the last day, the last week, or the last two weeks, the incidence and death rates can be calculated on population or relative to the population density of each country.

"The reason we developed this platform is because this is a phenomenon that people evaluate based on 3-4 key facts - how many cases there are, how many deaths and how many have recovered. But these numbers need to be weighted according to the country they refer to," Professor George Fotios explained to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

Fotios is a professor of Geography and Regional Planning at the School of Rural and Surveying Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens.

"It gives you (the platform) the ability to see cases in terms of population, deaths in terms of cases, cases in terms of population density or specific groups such as elderly people. At the same time, it allows you to compare how this pandemic evolves by country. That is, one can see what the number and spread of the disease is in each country," Fotios said, pointing out that it is a "tool" both for the ordinary citizen and people who want to deepen their knowledge of the issue.

The creation of the platform, according to the research team, makes use of state-of-the-art technologies and has focused on user-friendliness, which provides maps, graphs, and tables that answer questions.

The platform ia available at: http://geochoros.survey.ntua.gr/coronavirus/?fbclid=IwAR3bWOdskdtMh2znadEJPg-rTqWHNnkbhRzvoi_GCk24jzVToz6t7yOI4Bs