Some highlights from the data we looked at: Chicago's hospital system appears not to have been overwhelmed so far. Peak ICU occupation only reached 78%, and on average has hovered around 74% for the past month. Only half of the city's ventilators are in use. https://twitter.com/SeidelContent/status/1250485118323564544

Here's a look at Chicago's ICU occupation over the last month. Even as COVID-19 patients have increased, hospitals have kept pace with demand by adding more beds and halting elective surgeries. https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1948327/

A big stat that officials are paying attention to is the case 'doubling rate' - how many days does it take for cases to double? In March, Chicago was doubling coronavirus cases every 2 days. Now, it's looking more like every 12 days. The more we can stretch this out, the better.

Here's a chart to illustrate the doubling rate. It's plotted on a logarithmic scale. This is the 'curve' that all those public officials keep talking about flattening. https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1948779/

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this story, though, is the city's use of cell phone location data to quantify the effect of the stay-at-home order. The city used a third-party data company to analyze anonymous location collected by apps.

Analysis by that company, BlueDot, found that almost 80% of cell phone location pings are coming from 'home' locations in April, compared to 60% coming from 'home' in February. In short, it looks like Chicagoans are, for the most part, staying home.

There's a lot to unpack with the city using this kind of personal data. They assured reporters it's anonymous, and stressed that the city isn't actually collecting, storing or analyzing this data - it's all third-party companies. @SeidelContent explains the details in the story.

Here's the link to our full story. Give it a read if you want some *cautiously* optimistic virus news, and to learn more about this phone location tracking https://chicago.suntimes.com/coronavirus/2020/4/15/21222472/covid-19-chicago-making-strides-against-coronavirus-data-shows