Descriptive Statistics

Posted: August 26th, 2021

Descriptive Statistics

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Institutional Affiliation

Descriptive Statistics

Stebbins, S. (2020). Coronavirus Spread: In which states is COVID-19 growing fastest? Retrieved May 22, 2020, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/05/22/states-where-the-virus-is-growing-the-fastest-right-now/111806068/

Summary of the Article

The Article authored by Samuel Stebbins and published by Wall Street on USA Today discusses the state of Coronavirus spread across various states of the USA. Notably, the Article assesses regions with the fastest rate of growth of the pandemic across the country. Coronavirus is the current pandemic that is affecting all parts of the world following its outbreak in China’s Wuhan city(Stebbins, 2020). According to the Article, the data collected over the last few weeks starting May 12 to 18^th indicates that there is a reduction in the spread of the disease across USA states. Averagely, the Article shows there are currently an estimated 6.8 new cases being reported daily across the country out of every 100,000 people tested. This accounts for about 16% decline as compared to the previous weeks(Stebbins, 2020). Although this has alluded as a critical achievement against the pandemic, the Article stresses the need to remain vigilant against the threat that the virus is causing as many Americans continue being infected. Statistically, the Article relied on data collected and compiled by Wall Street besides reviewing confirmed infections and deaths as a result of the disease. Afterward, the average of the new cases per day for each of 100,000 people within the period was obtained. The results were ranked in descending order having the lowest on top and the highest at the bottom. According to the results, Hawaii State reported about 0.1 rates of infection per 100,000 people with an averagedisease of 1 person per day and zero deaths, which was the lowest(Stebbins, 2020). On the other hand, the most affected state was Rhode Island, with a 20.1 rate of infection per 100,000 people, with an average of 213 new cases of infection and 55 deaths per day.

How the Article Uses Descriptive Statistics

The Article utilizes the measures of position as descriptive statistics tools to examine the rate of infection across several USA states. Firstly, the percentile is used to understand the rate of infection in the whole country(Stebbins, 2020). As indicated in the Article, it argues that the rate of infection currently stands are 16% lower as between the week starting from 12^th to May 18, 2020, against the infection rate reported in the previous weeks. The Article goes further to utilize percentiles to compare the rate of infection across states(Stebbins, 2020). In this case, it is reported that about 0.1 infection rate per 100,000 people is recorded in the lowest case while 20.1 infection rate per 100,000 is recorded daily in states with the highest cases across the country.

Application of the Article

The Article is critical as it serves as a source of information on understanding the current situation on the spread of the COVID-19 infections in the country. Notably, it informs the public and policymakers on how best they should approach the current situation(Holcomb, 2016). Besides, the Article is very relevant to my career because it furthers the understanding of the importance of various descriptive statistics tools. 

Reasons for using various Data in the Article

The Article utilized data on the current deaths and infections collected from all states in the USA. This is secondary data that is sourced from different health centers from respective states(Asaad, 2001). Thus, the reason for using secondary data is that it is easily accessible and economical since it is already collected and compiled.

References

Asaad, A. (2001). Statistics as applied to education and other related fields. Manila: Rex Book Store.

Holcomb, Z. (2016). Fundamentals of Descriptive Statistics. Los Angeles: Taylor and Francis.

Stebbins, S. (2020). Coronavirus Spread: In which states is COVID-19 growing fastest? Retrieved May 22, 2020, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/05/22/states-where-the-virus-is-growing-the-fastest-right-now/111806068/