The public health department in Arkansas, a state with 3 million residents, says it can’t release the counties where coronavirus patients are dying because of “privacy concerns." We're still doing our best to track every case. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

Most states have worked to provide county-level information on coronavirus cases and deaths. It’s important: It can help residents understand the scope of infection in their community. It can help researchers predict what comes next. It can help policymakers make decisions.

A few, like @ADHPIO, have held back even the most basic geographic details, often using privacy as a reason, even when it’s unclear how specifying a county would identify a victim.

To its credit, Arkansas releases the counties for non-fatal coronavirus cases. Nevada does not even do that, though most counties report it themselves.

New York State did not release the counties where people were dying until this weekend, though all the major counties provided that information to their residents. Kansas still does not list deaths by county, though so far all counties have reported deaths themselves.

This is not about convenience for reporters. This is about our collective ability to understand the scope of this pandemic and the communities being impacted most heavily.

Fifty states, D.C. and four U.S. territories all report data differently. Publicly available CDC data tracks cases only at the state level. We’re doing the best we can to apply consistent rules to the inconsistency and track cases by county in real time. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html