Update on Johnstown Zip Code Testing

Last week I reported that my most viewed post on COVID-19 was on zip code testing in Johnstown zip codes compared to the county, state and the U.S.  I reported that the testing rates for the zip code for downtown Johnstown (15901) was nearly identical to the U.S. rates while the rates for the other zip codes and the county lagged behind the state and the U.S. rates.  I reposted the chart from that post above. 

 

As I was tracking the testing rates I noticed that the pattern was changing in the testing rates.  You can see that pattern in the bar chart above from the Google Sheets I put together for the county.  The rate for 15901 is still the highest in the city but it is falling behind the U.S. rate. The 15902 zip code has been inching upwards while the 15909 zip code lags behind the others and the county.  

I updated the line chart at the top of the post with the trend in testing up to the current date.  I got rid of the data table to make it more readable. In the chart we see that the testing rate for 15901 started to fall behind the U.S. rate on May 29. The post for the chart at the top was on May 17.  

The 15902 zip code (red dotted line) testing rate has nudged ahead of the state rate (solid black line.  Finally we see that the 15909 zip code has fallen further behind the other zip codes and the state and county overall in the testing rates on May 26.  

The number of COVID-19 cases in the county on May 17 was 54.  Today (27 days later) it is 61.  The 15902 zip code (Hornerstown and Moxham) now has a cluster of five confirmed cases and between 1 and 4 probable cases (the exact number is not released for privacy concerns) while 15901 has between 1 and 4 confirmed cases according to the PA Department of Health.  

Does the lag in testing account for the decrease in the number of new cases for the county?  I suppose only God knows for sure.  The COVID cast website shows a decrease in the indicators that they use to forecast the future cases from may 17 to May 31.  These indicators include doctor visits with COVID-19 symptoms, google search data, and Facebook search data.  After May 31 the indicators has leveled off which suggests that a surge in cases is not imminent.  Dr. Fauci has warned that a surge could happen as the states have been reopening.  So far it has yet to materialize in Cambria County.  Time will tell.

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COVID-19 and CSI without Dead Bodies

Since March 14, thirteen out of the last 14 posts on the blog have been on the Coronavirus pandemic.  One was on the new hate group numbers from the Southern Poverty law center.  With states starting to reopen after the I thought I would take a look at how the pandemic has affected traffic on this site according to Google Analytics.  I compared the traffic from March 14 to today (June 7) to the previous period (Dec 19,2019 to March 13, 2020).

Overall, the site has received 20.4% more traffic for the current period to the previous (1,133 to 941).  The average number of page views per session increased by 18.23% (1.47 pages/session for this period to 1.24 pages/session for the last period).  However, the average time spent on a page was 30.5% lower for the current period (0:26) compared to the previous (0:38).

Although the overall number of users on this site was up by 20.4%, the number of users from the U.S. was down by 12.46% (752 to 859).  There was number of users was up from China (49 to 2), India (19 to 3), the U.K. (18 to 10), Hong Kong (15 to 0), Germany (13 to 3), Japan (11 to 3) Mexico (11 to 5) and Canada (8 to 5).  Overall the number of users for this site from outside the U.S. was higher for this site with 381 for this period to 82 from outside the U.S.  This gives an increase of 365% from outside the U.S.

The ratio of new users to returning users for this period was 93.7% (1,103) new to 6.3% (74) returning for this period to 89.4% (897) to 10.6% (106) for the previous.  For those users that have their gender identified by Google the ratio of males to females was 51.01% (177) females to 48.99% (170) males for this period.  For the previous period it was 29.89% (55) for females versus 70.11% (129) for males.

For those users whose age is identified by google, the largest increase in users was in the 35-44 age group with a 180% increase (70 to 25) followed by the 65+ age group at 173.68% (52 to 19), and the 25-34 age group at 126.67% (102 to 45).  There were increases for all the age groups.  

The results here appear to be mixed.  There are more users for this site for the pandemic posts.  According to the graph in the image at the top of the post, the largest spike in number of users between the period occurred in the week from May 17 to May 23.  The post for this period was the one on COVID-19 testing in zip-codes in Johnstown.  The traffic for this post was almost exclusively from the U.S.  More specifically, it was mostly from Johnstown and the surrounding areas.  Without this post, the gap in users between the US and the rest of the world would be even greater.

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