Tri-Valley Teens Map Bay Area Coronavirus Cases

PLEASANTON, CA — Six Foothill High School students have used their time away from the classroom to create an information hub for Bay Area residents looking for information about the new coronavirus.

Their site features a live, interactive map with county-level information about COVID-19 patients and deaths, and they hope to include city-level data soon, as more counties start to release that information. Updates are pushed live every 30 minutes.

The site also features an FAQ section about the coronavirus, a list of resources, basic information about COVID-19 and a news section with links to related articles. All information on the Bay Area COVID-19 Tracker, or BACT, site comes from public health departments and news outlets, and is cross-checked with other sources, said Kishore Hariharan, who co-created the site with friends Jacob Bolano, Logan Dickey, Prem Giridhar, Vishal Muthuraja and Tarun Prakas.

"Currently people go to a lot of places for their information," Dickey said. "If we make one centralized hub for everything ... we just thought it'd be a lot easier for everyone."

They plan to soon add a feature that automatically checks inventories of local stores and allows users to see what's in stock.

An alerts feature for email and text updates is coming. They expect users will be able to sign up for alerts notifying them when certain items are restocked in nearby stores.

The boys say this project has helped them find purpose and make time for socialization amid the shelter-in-place order. It's an opportunity to give back, Hariharan said.

"If I'm going to be at home ... I might as well do something with my time," said Bolano. "I find it really meaningful to participate."

The same goes for Prakas, who said "it was pretty heartbreaking" to watch as school and events — including his high school graduation — were canceled.

"Now that we're able to do something with our time that's giving back to the community, it's not as bad because we can see people are benefiting from out work," Prakas said.

While the group is working hard to bring their community accurate and useful information, they say they are always taking feature requests to improve the user's experience.

Anyone with suggestions may submit them here. Donations are accepted here.

Visit the site here.

Follow BACT on Twitter:

Follow @BACTAlerts to stay up to date with relevant information. https://t.co/qHtiG7WrDE
— Bay Area COVID-19 Tracker | Alerts (@BACTAlerts) April 8, 2020