This is a UK-centric collection of authoritative resources related to Covid-19 (coronavirus SARS-CoV-2). I’m also lightly curating a Twitter list of authoritative sources on Covid-19, but they tend to include lots of other information. Neither of these are remotely comprehensive! Even if I wanted to do that, information is being produced faster than I can assess it. That said, if there’s something you think should be in here, do let me know.

Last update: 2020-02-26T12:42

Current facts and news

Wikipedia does well at coping with a fast-changing situation, but as always, if you need to be sure or it doesn’t quite seem right, go to the (linked!) authoritative sources:

• General article on the current Covid-19 outbreak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_outbreak
• Specific information on the disease itself, Covid-19 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019
• Information on the coronavirus responsible, SARS-CoV-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome_coronavirus_2

Generally reliable and freely-accessible news sources:

• Reuters https://uk.reuters.com/ and https://uk.reuters.com/search/news?blob=covid-19&sortBy=date&dateRange=all
• Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/
• BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news

General official information & advice

• Info on the situation from the UK Gov https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public
• Advice from the UK NHS https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
• Travel advice from the UK Government https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus
• US CDC https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/index.html
• World Health Organisation (WHO) https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Advice for businesses and organisations

• UK Government advice to employers and businesses: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19
• Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) https://www.acas.org.uk/acas-publishes-new-advice-on-handling-coronavirus-at-work
• Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) [needs free login] https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/health-safety/coronavirus-factsheet
• US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) advice: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/guidance-business-response.html

More details

• More detailed and specific information from the UK Government https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/wuhan-novel-coronavirus
• Fuller information from Public Health England https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/01/23/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know/ (was updated 2020-02-25, likely to be updated again)
• Background on contact tracing from Public Health England https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/02/13/expert-interview-what-is-contact-tracing/
• Background on self-isolation from Public Health England https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/02/20/what-is-self-isolation-and-why-is-it-important/
• UK Government advice on infection control procedures for healthcare workers: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-infection-prevention-and-control

Research information

For hard research info, there’s stuff on the WHO site (currently under ‘technical information’ and  ‘global research’) https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 and many publishers have made research freely available, and some have free-access portals on the topic, e.g.

• Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus
• Cell Press https://www.cell.com/2019-nCOV
• Elsevier https://www.elsevier.com/connect/coronavirus-information-center

If you like statistics and numbers, here’s some good aggregation from Johns Hopkins University, with a few visualisations and a link to a well-maintained GitHub CSV. https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6  

Another nice aggregation and visualisation of data is here, with lots of different dashboards, graphs and tables: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus

Doug Clow

I’m not an authoritative source myself on Covid-19! But I am well briefed on authoritative sources, and very experienced in mediating technical information to others.

• Covid-19 Preparedness workshop https://dougclow.org/workshop-covid-19-preparedness/
• Covid-19 and Data https://dougclow.org/2020/02/14/covid-19-coronavirus-and-data/
• Twitter list https://twitter.com/dougclow/lists/covid19