Spatial distribution of covid-19 in Sri Lanka using GIS technologies

Abstract

Corona is one of the hot topics spoken today in the whole world. This severe respiratory disease is known as Covid-19. The outbreak of this disease began in Wuhan Province of China in December 2019. The spread of this deadly virus was very fast. It has spread crossing over the provinces, states and the countries. Its spreading even over the continents; the North America and the European countries within 15 days. As on 2020.01.28, 2798 patients were identified worldwide. out of which 80 were dead. Since then, it from 2019.12.31 onwards up to 2020.08.14, Covid-19 has spread to almost all the countries of the World. More than 16 million patients have been identified during this 7 month Worldwide. Among them, 9.24 million people have recovered while 644 Thousand deaths have been recorded. Sri Lanka reported the first case in a Chinese tourist on 27th January 2020 and subsequently in a local person on 11th March, 2020. The Sri Lankan Government aimed at controlling the pandemic, the government enforced a strict strategy of case detection, identification of contacts, quarantine, travel restrictions and isolation. In Sri Lanka, 2882 cases have been reported up to date. 2391 people have recovered from the deadly virus while 11 deaths have been recorded so far (09.09.2020). The aim to this research is to graphically explain the spread of covid- 19 in Sri Lanka. The research was conducted based on the administrative units of Sri Lanka. The secondary data was collected from the minutes of World Health Organization (WHO), minutes of (Epidemiology Unit) Sri Lankan, Department of health, Newspapers and Internet sources. The data were analyzed using ArcGIS 10.3 for visualizing the spatial pattern of the Covid-19. Moreover, this research is designed so that Covid-19 could be completely eradicated from the country by creating awareness among people by graphically explaining the spread of this disease in various part of the Island by analyzing the data using GIS Technologies.