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Timeline of COVID-19 in Canada

⚠️ Updates to this dataset will end on December 31, 2023 ⚠️

Updates to this dataset will end on December 31, 2023. Historical data may receive updates for a short period after this date, but no new data will be added after this date.

The Timeline of COVID-19 in Canada (CovidTimelineCanada) is intended to be the definitive source for data regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. In addition to making available the ready-to-use datasets, this repository also acts as a hub for collaboration on expanding and improving the availability and quality of COVID-19 data in Canada. This repository is maintained by the COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group and is one component of the What Happened? COVID-19 in Canada project. Our work has been cited or republished by numerous organizations, researchers, and journalists: see Citation and terms of use for some examples.

Datasets in this repository are found in the data directory and are updated automatically several times per day. Map, population and other spatial data are provided in the geo directory. A Technical report and Detailed description of data sources is also available. For more information on how this dataset was constructed, see Methodology.

On April 30, 2022, CovidTimelineCanada superseded the original Covid19Canada dataset, which was first made available in March of 2020. For those familiar with the original dataset, please see Transitioning from Covid19Canada.

A simple dashboard is available to explore the data available in the Timeline of COVID-19 in Canada dataset.

Getting started

We offer three groups of datasets: health region-level (hr), for case and death data only, province/territory-level (pt), for all data types, and Canada-level (can), for all data types. Because each province/territory has a different update schedule, the most recent date of data for each region is different; for the same reason, the Canada-level data are incomplete in recent days (completeness: cases, deaths, tests).

To download all of the datasets in this repository, click the big green "Code" button, then click "Download ZIP". Save it to the location of your choice and unzip the contents. All of the CSV files containing the data can be opened using your spreadsheet software or statistical package of choice. Alternatively, you can download individual CSV files in the data directory by right clicking the "Raw" button on the page and selecting "Save link as...". Previously, data were also available via an API (https://api.opencovid.ca/), but this was retired in February 2024.

For a list of available datasets see Available datasets and for an explanation of the data format see Data format.

Some provinces no longer offer health region-level data for cases and/or deaths. For these provinces/territories, all recent cases and/or deaths will show up under the "Unknown" (code: 9999) health region. See Health region-level data reporting for details on if and when this transition occured for each province.

Available datasets

The following datasets are available:

• Cases (cases) (health region or province/territory)
• Deaths (deaths) (health region or province/territory)
• Active hospitalizations (hospitalizations)
• Active ICU (icu)
• Tests completed (tests_completed)
• Vaccine coverage by dose (vaccine_coverage_dose_1, vaccine_coverage_dose_2, vaccine_coverage_dose_3, vaccine_coverage_dose_4)
• Vaccine administration by dose (vaccine_administration_total_doses, vaccine_administration_dose_1, vaccine_administration_dose_2, vaccine_administration_dose_3, vaccine_administration_dose_4, vaccine_administration_dose_5plus)
• Vaccine distribution (vaccine_distribution_total_doses)

While we do our best to ensure comparability for the same metrics across different provinces/territories, some regions use different difinitions for the same metric (e.g., how COVID-19 deaths are defined). Reporting of a metric may also change over time in the same region.

For more information on each value, including definitions, see the Technical report and the Detailed description of data sources.

For a summary plot of each dataset, see our dashboard.

Data format

• name: The name of the metric (e.g., cases, testing)
• province: The two-letter code for the province or territory (e.g., ON, AB)
• sub_region_1: The unique identifier of the health region (e.g., 3595, 594) (this column is absent for PT-level data)
• date: The date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• value: The cumulative value (e.g., cumulative number of cases, number of active hospitalizations)
• value_daily: The daily value (e.g., daily number of cases, change in the number of active hospitalizations)

Extra datasets

Additional datasets are available, including wastewater data, excess mortality data, and extra case and hospital/ICU data. See Extra datasets for details about these datasets, which are found in the extra_data directory.

Citation and terms of use

Datasets in our repository are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). Software and scripts in our repository are provided under the MIT license.

Please see our license file for a full list of acknowledgements of data sources used in this repository as well as copies of the aforementioned licenses.

We recommend using the citation below:

Berry, I., O’Neill, M., Sturrock, S. L., Wright, J. E., Acharya, K., Brankston, G., Harish, V., Kornas, K., Maani, N., Naganathan, T., Obress, L., Rossi, T., Simmons, A. E., Van Camp, M., Xie, X., Tuite, A. R., Greer, A. L., Fisman, D. N., & Soucy, J.-P. R. (2021). A sub-national real-time epidemiological and vaccination database for the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Scientific Data, 8(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-00955-2

A BibTeX file for the citation is available here.

Previously, we recommended the following citation:

Berry, I., Soucy, J.-P. R., Tuite, A., & Fisman, D. (2020). Open access epidemiologic data and an interactive dashboard to monitor the COVID-19 outbreak in Canada. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 192(15), E420. doi: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.75262

Our data have been used by numerous organizations, journalists, and researchers (Google Scholar: new paper, old paper). Our datasets have also been republished by groups such as the Public Health Agency of Canada (health region map), Google, Esri, and Our World in Data.

Contributing

To contribute to this project, please open an issue on GitHub. We can also be reached via our contact page.

Technical report and detailed description of data sources

See Technical report and Detailed description of data sources.

Methodology

The original Covid19Canada dataset provided the cumulative reported value for each metric (cases, deaths, recovered, active cases, vaccine administration, vaccine distribution) for each region on each date. Thus, each region had a value for each metric and date up to the current day, whether or not they actually they actually updated their data on the current day. Retroactive updates to data were generally not pursued. The "date" value in this dataset corresponded to the date the data were reported, also known as the "report date". For example, if a province reported new cases on a particular date, this usually meant the cases were actually confirmed the day prior.

The CovidTimelineCanada dataset was constructed with a different philosophy, focused on maximizing the accuracy of historical data and only providing data updates to the point where data are actually available. In this dataset, the time series for each value will end on different dates for different regions, depending on their update schedule. The following hierarchy of data types are used to maximize the accuracy of the dataset, though the exact selection of data source also depends on other factors such as temporal resolution and data availability:

• Cumulative time series (e.g., cumulative cases)
• Daily time series (e.g., new cases that can be added to a cumulative time series)
• Cumulative differences (e.g., new cases that can be added to a cumulative time series)
  • Reports sometimes report two values: the cumulative number of cases since the start of the respiratory virus season and the new cases from the current reporting period. Often, the difference between the cumulative number from the current reporting period and the cumulative number from the previous reporting period is larger than the new cases from the current reporting period. The cumulative differences are preferred to avoid "losing" cases to unreported retroactive updates.
• Daily differences (e.g., new cases that can be added to a cumulative time series)
  • Some reports will only give the new cases in the current reporting period.

Due to the focus on time series data, historical data are regularly rewritten as the source datasets are updated. Imprecise data types such as 7-day averages and unlabelled bar/line charts are not used as sources for this dataset, with one exception (HR-level case data from the MB report are approximated from a bar chart). "Impossible" values (e.g., negative cases or vaccine doses administered) are sometimes reported due to irreconcilable issues with the source datasets.

The "date" value in this dataset generally corresponds to some version of "report date" (exceptions exist), although not exactly the same as the old dataset. Dates are generally unchanged from those in the source dataset. For example, if the source dataset for a particular region is updated on Wednesday up to the end of the previous epidemiological week (i.e., the previous Saturday), the time series will end on the previous Saturday. The only exception is "real-time" time series source datasets that end on the date prior to the current date, such as the time series from QC. These time series are shifted forward by one day to match the "report date" philosophy of the dataset. This dataset should not be used as a reference for when each province/territory publicly reported their first case of COVID-19, as the source datasets may date these first cases differently. It should also not be used as a reference for other "first" dates (such as hospital admissions or COVID-19 vaccine administration), as the source datasets may date these differently or be incomplete for the earliest dates.

The CovidTimelineCanada dataset excludes recovered and active cases, as regions ceased reporting these values, and they provided little additional value beyond the case and death numbers.

The data in this repository are updated several times per day by Covid19CanadaBot.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the individuals and organizations across Canada who have worked tirelessly to provide data to the public during this pandemic.

Additionally, we acknowledge the following individuals and organizations for their support:

Public Health Agency of Canada / Joe Murray (JMA Consulting)

Contact us

More information about the COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group is available at our website. We may also be reached through our contact page.