After 16 months, Covid-19 data tracker says it’ll shut ops in Oct

New Delhi: Covid19india.org, a volunteer-driven website that has been tracking the Covid pandemic in the country for the last 16 months, has said it would be shutting operations by October 31 this year.

The website has been providing real-time daily updates of Covid cases, deaths, recoveries, tests and vaccinations in each state and UT of the country, mostly based on data released by the state and central governments. Over time, the site has earned a reputation for credibility.

In a blog dated Saturday, the website’s team said it was difficult to keep a voluntary initiative such as theirs running indefinitely. “With our work and personal lives limping back to normalcy, we believe it’s time for us to look ahead and focus on them,” it said. “The team feels that October 2021 is a reasonable date to sunset the initiative, especially as there are many other credible public sources of information now,” it said.

It said over 300 volunteers have been involved in the project, with the website getting 4.4 billion visits till date.

Many people reacted to the development team’s closure announcement on Twitter, with offers of help and suggestions on how to keep the initiative alive.