Abstract
Several studies on spatial patterns of COVID-19 show huge differences depending on the country or region under study, although there is some agreement that socioeconomic factors affect these phenomena. The aim of this paper is to increase the knowledge of the socio-spatial behavior of coronavirus and implementing a geospatial methodology and digital system called SITAR (Fast Action Territorial Information System, by its Spanish acronym). We analyze as a study case a region of Spain called Cantabria, geocoding a daily series of microdata coronavirus records provided by the health authorities (Government of Cantabria—Spain) with the permission of Medicines Ethics Committee from Cantabria (CEIm, June 2020). Geocoding allows us to provide a new point layer based on the microdata table that includes cases with a positive result in a COVID-19 test. Regarding general methodology, our research is based on Geographical Information Technologies using Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Technologies. This tool is a global reference for spatial COVID-19 research, probably due to the world-renowned COVID-19 dashboard implemented by the Johns Hopkins University team. In our analysis, we found that the spatial distribution of COVID-19 in urban locations presents a not random distribution with clustered patterns and density matters in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, large metropolitan areas or districts with a higher number of persons tightly linked together through economic, social, and commuting relationships are the most vulnerable to pandemic outbreaks, particularly in our case study. Furthermore, public health and geoprevention plans should avoid the idea of economic or territorial stigmatizations. We hold the idea that SITAR in particular and Geographic Information Technologies in general contribute to strategic spatial information and relevant results with a necessary multi-scalar perspective to control the pandemic.
Highlights
The globalization of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive health and socioeconomic problems worldwide
This section starts with the current geographical setting of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria, as a case study, and only the most relevant results are presented based on the relationship between population, territory, and COVID-19
Our study provides a valid methodology that could be used by other research teams and they could be applied to other countries with the only requirements that their authorities have individualized COVID-19 cases checking and the research group gets permission to use the COVID-19 microdata
Summary
The globalization of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive health and socioeconomic problems worldwide. The COVID-19 continues its gallop across the world, testing the hospital capacity and strength of our health systems. This paper is addressed at a time when Spain, with a population close to 47.5 million inhabitants and after one of the most draconian COVID-19 lockdowns in Europe, has already exceeded 1.2 million COVID-19 cases, which implies a cumulative incidence of. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 8468; doi:10.3390/ijerph17228468 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph. 580,000 inhabitants and a surface area of 5300 km (2055 square miles), which represents an average regional density close to 110 inhabitants/km (285 inhabitants/squared meters). The distribution of the population and, the density present important internal contrasts. The capital city is territory, and COVID-19
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