API stats for sparse data

[gitjeff05]

Since some state level statistics are sparse (e.g., current hospital/ICU admissions/ventilator), Some insights into the data that is captured and provided through the API would be helpful. Reading issue #555 made me think about this as it is somewhat related.

Using the sparse fields hospitalizedCurrently and hospitalizedCumulative as an example, the following stats could be used:

Out of 56 states/territories reporting:

• 52 (93%) contain a cumulative or current hospitalization metric
• 49 (88%) contain a cumulative or current hospitalization metric updated in the last 24 hrs
• 19 (34%) contain both cumulative and current hospitalization metrics (16 have updated in last 24 hrs)

There are probably better ways to show/describe this. The same should be done for ICU/Ventilator data.

[schwartzadev]

I really like this idea, and I would suggest adding this type of info to the us-totals page.

One concern that comes to mind is the "x hrs ago" format...I don't think our current build system would support that without client JS. Regardless, I think this type of info is important and I'm sure we can figure something out.

[gitjeff05]

Thanks for the feedback @schwartzadev. I think we could probably just use the "date" field from our API instead of "updated x hrs ago." This part could live on us-totals, however the relevant stats are no longer included in the US API, only states. I was thinking of putting it on the Our Data. Maybe under the caveats:

States are currently reporting two fundamentally unlike statistics...

Also, including a table for reference in case anyone is interested. Blue rows contain both metrics and are current. Orange rows show that at least one metric is out of date.

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