core: Coronavirus (COVID-19) integration no longer reports current or recovered numbers for Czechia

The API used to fetch the active and new cases has a problem with country ids not being fixed (#https://github.com/yudeep-rajbhandari/covid-19-api/issues/3). Naturally, this leads to inconsistent results and jumps in sensor readings when, say Panama is suddenly substituted with Venezuela. The snippet below relies on the aggregated country list endpoint (https://covid-19-apis.herokuapp.com/allUpdate) and parses the results for the country of your choice. Simply replace ‘world’ with another country. A nice benefit is that you can parse data for multiple countries within a single query.

rest:
  - scan_interval: 3600
    resource: https://covid-19-apis.herokuapp.com/allUpdate
    timeout: 60
    sensor:
      - name: covid_world
        json_attributes_path: '$.[?(@["Country,_Other"]=="World")]'
        json_attributes:
          - Active_Cases
          - New_Cases
          - Total_Cases
          - Total_Recovered
          - Total_Deaths
        value_template: 'Covid World'
      - name: covid_world_active_cases
        value_template: '{{ states.sensor.covid_world.attributes["Active_Cases"] | replace(",","")| int | round(0) }}'
        unit_of_measurement: '#'
      - name: covid_world_new_cases
        value_template: '{{ states.sensor.covid_world.attributes["New_Cases"] | replace(",","")| int | round(0) }}'
        unit_of_measurement: '#'
      - name: covid_world_total_cases
        value_template: '{{ states.sensor.covid_world.attributes["Total_Cases"] | replace(",","")| int | round(0) }}'
        unit_of_measurement: '#'
      - name: covid_world_total_recovered
        value_template: '{{ states.sensor.covid_world.attributes["Total_Recovered"] | replace(",","")| int | round(0) }}'
        unit_of_measurement: '#'
      - name: covid_world_total_deaths
        value_template: '{{ states.sensor.covid_world.attributes["Total_Deaths"] | replace(",","")| int | round(0) }}'
        unit_of_measurement: '#'

Current cases is by far the most useful metric for tracking how active the virus is in a given place at a current time. I’ve had it on my dashboard for the last 2 years, and I have a very good idea how bad things are and which direction things are headed on a daily basis just from this number and new cases per day. That’s all I really need to track where we are and where we are headed at any given time. I don’t really care how many of those are people who’ve had it twice or had it for a long time. I just care if they can infect me.

here’s my temporary fix using https://rapidapi.com/ronanren/api/worldometers API

delete corona virus integration from config -> integrations and this will replace it so you’ll get the same history data

remember to replace all <YOUR API KEY>(1) and <your country>(10)

  - platform: rest
    resource: https://worldometers.p.rapidapi.com/api/coronavirus/country/<your country>
    name: corona_rest
    headers:
      x-rapidapi-key: "<YOUR API KEY>"
      x-rapidapi-host: "worldometers.p.rapidapi.com"
    value_template: "[OK]"
    scan_interval: 3600    
    json_attributes:
      - data

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      <your country>_coronavirus_confirmed:
          friendly_name: <your country> Coronavirus confirmed
          icon_template: mdi:emoticon-neutral-outline
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('sensor.corona_rest','data')['Total Cases'] | replace(',','') | int }}"
          unit_of_measurement: people
      <your country>_coronavirus_current:
          friendly_name: <your country> Coronavirus current
          icon_template: mdi:emoticon-sad-outline        
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('sensor.corona_rest','data')['Active Cases'] | replace(',','') | int }}"
          unit_of_measurement: people
      <your country>_coronavirus_deaths:
          friendly_name: <your country> Coronavirus deaths
          icon_template: mdi:emoticon-cry-outline
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('sensor.corona_rest','data')['Total Deaths'] | replace(',','') | int }}"
          unit_of_measurement: people
      <your country>_coronavirus_recovered:
          friendly_name: <your country> Coronavirus recovered
          icon_template: mdi:emoticon-happy-outline
          value_template: "{{ state_attr('sensor.corona_rest','data')['Total Recovered'] | replace(',','') | int }}"
          unit_of_measurement: people       ```

Here’s my final version which correctly casts the values to int in case you want to chart them. You can add the additional sensors you want from the list of json properties in my post above. You can uncomment out the units if you want them, for me it just clutters up my card.

rest:
  - scan_interval: 3600
    resource: https://covid-19-apis.herokuapp.com/update/country/23
    timeout: 60
    sensor:
      - name: "Coronavirus Active Cases CZ"
        value_template: '{{ value_json.Active_Cases|replace(",","")| int }}'
#        unit_of_measurement: "people"
      - name: "Coronavirus New Cases CZ"
        value_template: '{{ value_json.New_Cases|replace(",","")|int }}'
#        unit_of_measurement: "people"

Just fyi, I’ve always been running at 6 hrs (21600 s) and I gives quite enough data detail for me when working

The problem is not determining which statistic is the “most valuable”. The problem is that all too often anymore, “science” has an agenda which is not scientific. I think what people are pointing out is that we’d like to see the raw data and make our own decisions as to what is relevant. Whenever “the science” starts restricting certain sets of information, it’s no longer “science” anymore. True science looks at all the data and lets people disagree.

Once those who possess the data start withholding certain data points, you end up with a climate chart shaped like a hockey stick…

Just curious what current and recovered numbers tell you?! It is complete nonsense especially if you take into account that a person can be infected/become sick more than once, “long COVID” etc. These two parameters are gone for a good reason.