On August 19th the Regional Committee of the NYS GIS Association organized a webinar to highlight the use of GIS for COVID related operations. The webinar focused on the use of geocoded, precision location data to map and analyze COVID positive cases and contact tracing information to the address point and building footprint, and to aggregate location data to different geographies ranging from census blocks to ZIP Codes and other larger areas.

For easy reference, the major statements of speakers and panelists can be found at the following times on the recording.

0 – 1:30: Introductions and Instructions, Michelle Westfall
2:20: Statement, Ross Baldwin
3:25: Statement, Alan Leidner
5:00: Presentation by Frank Winters, NYS GIO
16:00: Presentation by Doug Schuetz, Rockland County
39:45: Presentation by Jim Daly, Suffolk County
1:07:40: Dr. Sean Ahearn, Panelist, Hunter College
1:18:50: Dr. Nadine Alameh, CEO, Open Geospatial Consortium
1:37:30: Dr. K.C. Rondello, Adelphi University

We believe that GIS can be better utilized in the response to the COVID 19 pandemic. We hope the information that emerged from the Workshop will get people thinking about how to use GIS more effectively. We believe the right direction is to capture, digitized, and geocode precision location data at testing stations, and to do the same for location data recorded through the efforts of contact tracers. We hope we can help DOHs at all levels of government, and for that matter all agencies at all levels of government, utilize the GIS resources available to them to help them make more informed decisions.