19/05/2023
After three years, and nearly 800 updates, yesterday was the final time that I will be updating the Scotland Coronavirus Tracker.
Thank you so much to everyone for all of the support and encouragement over that time. Being able to run this page for so long has been the honour of my life 🥹
The data, of course, will still be released.
The 'Weekly national respiratory infection and COVID-19 statistical report' from PHS includes most of the data for Scotland on it. On the page below you can view the figures in a report, or on a dashboard.
https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/weekly-national-respiratory-infection-and-covid-19-statistical-report/weekly-national-respiratory-infection-and-covid-19-statistical-report-18-may-2023/
It is released each Thursday. I like the report as it gives a nice clear overview of the situation! To dive further into the data, the dashboard is nice too. And to see more death figures, you'll want to visit the NRS page below (also each Thursday).
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/weekly-deaths-registered-in-scotland
Then for the UK as a whole, the official UK dashboard is still running! It has more of an English focus now, and limited data for elsewhere, but it is still great.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
And for deaths, you'll want to visit the ONS page below.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending5may2023
The four pages above cover virtually all of the data I was still reporting on, but if you were wondering where to find something specific, then let me know and I'll be happy to point you in the right direction!
Between PHS, the NRS, the ONS, and the UKHSA, we're quite blessed here when it comes to data availability. It is the whole reason I was able to make the website in the first place! I'm super super grateful for all the work they have done throughout the pandemic.
Whenever I've been in contact with anyone from the above groups, they could not have been friendlier or more helpful. I'm sure if you needed help understanding or finding any of the current data, the teams there would be happy to help you out too!
As for my pages, they will remain up for the foreseeable future. I'll leave them as they are for a week or two, and then begin adjusting them to put more of a focus on showing the entire pandemic and how it played out, rather than the current focus on the latest figures.
Anyways, what an absurd few years these have been!
A little side project quickly consumed my entire life, and led to me finding myself in situations that never in a million years could I have imagined myself in. I still don't understand how it all happened.
I look back on it all from time to time and think 'WHAT?!'. I create a little spreadsheet for fun, fast forward a few years, and so many crazy things have happened. From having my name mentioned in parliament, to being in a bunch of newspapers, to receiving a letter from the First Minister, to attending the late Queen's funeral in Westminster Abbey.
I'm a business student from a small town who sometimes plays with spreadsheets for fun. It doesn't many any sense...
I think I've updated the Scotland page 799 times, and the UK page 673 times. In total, I think I've spent around 3,000 hours on this! Over 30 million views, with over 100k a day at some points!
The strangest, wildest side quest my life could have gone on. I'll need to write a blog post about it all one day, if not a book! 😂
But of course, none of it would have happened without all of the support I received. All the encouragement, donations, advice, and more. I know I go on about it all the time, but it has been so overwhelming!
From strangers, to teachers, to experts in the field, to people I see on TV! The scope of the support has been so incredible, and I really don't know how to begin to say thank you to everyone for it. 🥹
I've always looked at the page as some sort of a community run project that I was just in charge of for some bizarre reason. And in that sense, I feel bad about stopping it. But unfortunately, I really couldn't keep it going on any longer.
At the end of July I'm going away to Africa to live in a tent for 40 days, so that was the hard end of the website either way. 😂 And in the 10 weeks until then, I wouldn't be able to do the update on 4 of them either. So rather than constantly missing weeks, ending now is best.
Maybe I'll share any big news involving Covid-19 data in Scotland, but most of what I share going forward will not be related to the virus. If you want to unfollow, no hard feelings! If not, I'll be trying to make more of an effort to share content surrounding my travels. 🌍
Through this website, I've come to love data visualisation. I'm going to keep playing around with it as a hobby, and of course, incorporate it into my travels. Maybe I can even make a career out of it after my travels are done! Either way, there are more charts to come! 📊
I have a special trip planned next week, which I'll be sure to share some photos from! But for now, I'll just say thank you one final time to everyone for all of your kindness over the years. ☺️
Travelling Tabby will still be around, but this chapter has come to an end!