Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK - API Service

Software Development Kit (SDK) for JavaScript

This is a JavaScript SDK for the COVID-19 API, as published by Public Health England on Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the UK.

The API supplies the latest data for the COVID-19 outbreak in the United Kingdom.

The endpoint for the data provided using this SDK is:

https://api.coronavirus.data.gov.uk/v1/data

The SDK is also available for Python and R.

Pagination

Using this SDK will bypass the pagination process. You will always download the entire dataset unless the latest_by argument is defined.

Installation

Python 3.7+ is required to install and use this library.

To install globally, please run:

npm install -g @publichealthengland/uk-covid19

or to install locally in your project, run:

npm install @publichealthengland/uk-covid19

Import the library in TypeScript as follows:

import Cov19API from "@publichealthengland/uk-covid19";

or using CommonJS:

const Cov19API = require("@publichealthengland/uk-covid19");

Example

We would like to extract the number of new cases, cumulative cases, new deaths and cumulative deaths for England using the API.

We start off by importing the library into our workspace:

const Cov19API = require("@publichealthengland/uk-covid19");

Next, we construct the value of the filters parameter:

const englandOnly = [
    'areaType=nation',
    'areaName=England'
];

Next step is to construct the value of the structure parameter. To do so, we need to find out the name of the metric in which we are interested. You can find this information in the Developer's Guide on the Coronavirus Dashboard website.

In the case of this example, the metrics are as follows:

• newCasesByPublishDate: New cases (by publish date)
• cumCasesByPublishDate: Cumulative cases (by publish date)
• newDeathsByDeathDate: New deaths (by death date)
• cumDeathsByDeathDate: Cumulative deaths (by death date)

In its simplest form, we construct the structure as follows:

const casesAndDeaths = {
    "date": "date",
    "areaName": "areaName",
    "areaCode": "areaCode",
    "newCasesByPublishDate": "newCasesByPublishDate",
    "cumCasesByPublishDate": "cumCasesByPublishDate",
    "newDeathsByDeathDate": "newDeathsByDeathDate",
    "cumDeathsByDeathDate": "cumDeathsByDeathDate"
};

Now, we may use filters and structure to initialise the Covid19API object:

const api = new Cov19API({
        filters: englandOnly,
        structure: casesAndDeaths
    });

const data = api.getJSON(); 

console.log(data)

You may also use data.getCSV() to download the data in CSV. This is exemplified later in this document.

{
    'data': [
        {
            'date': '2020-07-28',
            'areaName': 'England',
            'areaCode': 'E92000001',
            'newCasesByPublishDate': 547,
            'cumCasesByPublishDate': 259022,
            'newDeathsByDeathDate': None,
            'cumDeathsByDeathDate': None
        },
        {
            'date': '2020-07-27',
            'areaName': 'England',
            'areaCode': 'E92000001',
            'newCasesByPublishDate': 616,
            'cumCasesByPublishDate': 258475,
            'newDeathsByDeathDate': 20,
            'cumDeathsByDeathDate': 41282
        },
        ...
    ],
    'lastUpdate': '2020-07-28T15:34:31.000000Z',
    'length': 162,
    'totalPages': 1
}

To see the timestamp for the last update, run:

const timestamp = api.lastUpdate();

console.log(timestamp);

2020-07-28T15:34:31.000Z

To get the latest data by a specific metric, run:

const allNations = [
    "areaType=nation"
];

const latestData = new Cov19API({
        filters: allNations,
        structure: casesAndDeaths,
        latest_by: "newCasesByPublishDate"
    });

const data = latestData.getJSON();

console.log(data)

{
    "data": [
        {
            "date": "2020-07-28",
            "areaName": "England",
            "areaCode": "E92000001",
            "newCasesByPublishDate": 547,
            "cumCasesByPublishDate": 259022,
            "newDeathsByDeathDate": None,
            "cumDeathsByDeathDate": None
        },
        {
            "date": "2020-07-28",
            "areaName": "Northern Ireland",
            "areaCode": "N92000002",
            "newCasesByPublishDate": 9,
            "cumCasesByPublishDate": 5921,
            "newDeathsByDeathDate": None,
            "cumDeathsByDeathDate": None
        },
        {
            "date": "2020-07-28",
            "areaName": "Scotland",
            "areaCode": "S92000003",
            "newCasesByPublishDate": 4,
            "cumCasesByPublishDate": 18558,
            "newDeathsByDeathDate": None,
            "cumDeathsByDeathDate": None
        },
        {
            "date": "2020-07-28",
            "areaName": "Wales",
            "areaCode": "W92000004",
            "newCasesByPublishDate": 21,
            "cumCasesByPublishDate": 17191,
            "newDeathsByDeathDate": None,
            "cumDeathsByDeathDate": None
        }
    ],
    "lastUpdate": "2020-07-28T15:34:31.000000Z",
    "length": 4,
    "totalPages": 1
}

You may retrieve CSV-formatted data as follows:

const csvData = api.getCSV();

console.log(csvData)

date,areaName,areaCode,newCasesByPublishDate,cumCasesByPublishDate,newDeathsByDeathDate,cumDeathsByDeathDate
2020-07-28,England,E92000001,547,259022,,
2020-07-28,Northern Ireland,N92000002,9,5921,,
2020-07-28,Scotland,S92000003,4,18558,,
2020-07-28,Wales,W92000004,21,17191,,

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Developed and maintained by Public Health England.

Copyright (c) 2020, Public Health England.