Data Innovation in the Time of COVID-19 

A team from the U.S Digital Service traveled from Washington D.C. to Tallahassee for an up-close and personal look at a community COVID-19 sample collection site that the Leon County Health Department helped to organize.

On June 1, 2020, the three-member team met the department's Health Officer Claudia Blackburn and leadership from Florida A & M University and Bond Community Health Center at Bragg Memorial Football Stadium to explain their research mission​​.

Since the COVID-19 community walk-up site opened in late April, more than eight thousand people have been tested for coronavirus infection.

The U.S. Digital Service team is researching the data reporting and surveillance challenges and successes at the state and local level, and then will use this research to make technology and policy recommendations. 

The goal is to find short-term and longer-term methods to help the state and local health departments get more timely, complete, and accurate data to use for public health surveillance and reporting.

The U.S. Digital Service is beginning this collaborative project at the direction of Dr. Deborah Birx who serves as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force.

 * Pamela Saulsby | Public Information Officer

​