Essex County Council has created a map identifying Covid-19 risk and vulnerability across Essex to support and inform a shared response to the current Coronavirus crisis.

The dashboard available on the Essex Open Data platform draws together data from a range of sources to help public and community sector partners understand levels of vulnerability in neighbourhoods across Essex. 

Mirroring guidance from government, the dashboard presents data on the age of the local populations and on the prevalence of certain health conditions at the neighbourhood (LSOA) level. These measures reflect the risk characteristics associated with disproportionate COVID-19 mortality. The mortality ratio of COVID-19 is significantly higher in the older age population (>65) and poses a real risk to those who have underlying health conditions or co-morbidities.

The dashboard also presents a wider ‘vulnerability’ index. This index combines around 50 indicators reflecting both the health of local populations and the wider (non-health related) characteristics that might leave households vulnerable through the crisis. 

Finally, the dashboard presents a ‘cluster analysis’ grouping neighbourhoods across Essex into a set of categories based on local health outcomes, local demographics and the wider vulnerability of households.

We hope that the dashboard and the analyses it presents will support partners to take action at the strategic and operational level to help tackle the Coronavirus outbreak.

The dashboard has been prepared by Essex County Council’s Research and Citizen Insight Team. We’ll be publishing more research and insight that enables us to better understand residents’ wellbeing and needs and further supports us to inform our response.