UK Local Authority Coronavirus Rates Checker

This is a small script designed to act as a custom Waybar module which scrapes the UK Government's coronavirus data API to find the infection rates in your local area.

The above screenshot shows the data the script pulls in for the given region: The name of the area, as defined on the Coronavirus API, the current rolling number of cases per 100k of the population, and then the total rolling number of cases with the change from last week as both an absolute and a percentage.

This is the same information that is presented on the Official Interactive Map.

Usage

Calling from the command line

covid-checker [Area Type] [Area Code]

The Area Type most be one of:

• utla (the highest level possible - eg Devon's)
• ltla (the medium size of region - eg North Devon)
• msoa (the smallest local area - eg Barnstaple South)

The Area Code should be the unique identifying code for the Local Authority. Some examples:

• Devon: E10000008
• North Devon: E07000043
• Barnstaple South: E02004184
• Bristol: E06000023

Codes always start with a "E" for areas of England, "W" for areas within Wales, "S" for Scotland, and "N" for Nothern Ireland.

You can use FindThatPostCode to help locate the correct code - you must always use the one marked "local authority".

Within Your WayBar config

{
    "modules-left": ["custom/covid"],

    "custom/covid": {
        # City of Bristol - see above for details of this line
        "exec": "covid-checker ltla E06000023",

        # Important as covid-checker always returns a Waybar's JSON format
        "return-type": "json",

        # {} will work on its own, but you may also want to add an icon or label
        "format": "{icon} {}",

        # If you want to show icons for up and down
        "format-icons": ["", ""]
    }
}

Styling

The script returns unformatted text, so there's not a huge amount of styling options, but if you named it custom/covid as shown above, you can of course style the box with #custom-covid. If the rate is going down, the classname for it will be set to DOWN, and it will be set to UP if the rates are rising. A basic example of styling this:

#custom-covid.DOWN {
    color: green;
}

#custom-covid.UP {
    color: red;
}