get_covid_stats_by_continent: Get COVID-19 Statistics for All Continents

In infectiousR: Access Infectious and Epidemiological Data via 'disease.sh API'

Get COVID-19 Statistics for All Continents

Description

Retrieves real-time COVID-19 totals for all continents from the 'disease.sh' API.

Usage

get_covid_stats_by_continent(
  yesterday = FALSE,
  twoDaysAgo = FALSE,
  sort = NULL,
  allowNull = FALSE
)

Arguments

yesterday	Logical. If TRUE, retrieves data reported from the previous day. Default is FALSE.
twoDaysAgo	Logical. If TRUE, retrieves data reported two days ago. Default is FALSE.
sort	Character. Field to sort results by. Options include: "cases", "todayCases", "deaths", "recovered", "active", etc.
allowNull	Logical. If TRUE, missing values are returned as NA instead of 0. Default is FALSE.

Details

This function retrieves COVID-19 summary data for each continent. You may specify whether to get data from today, yesterday, or two days ago. Requires an active internet connection.

Value

A data frame containing:

• continent: Continent name.

• updated: Last updated timestamp (as POSIXct in UTC).

• cases: Total confirmed cases.

• todayCases: New confirmed cases today.

• deaths: Total deaths.

• todayDeaths: New deaths today.

• population: Continent population estimate.

Returns NULL if the API is unavailable or an error occurs.

Note

Requires internet access. Function fails gracefully if API is unavailable.

References

API Docs: https://disease.sh/docs/#/COVID-19

Examples

## Not run: 
# Get current COVID-19 stats for all continents
stats <- get_covid_stats_by_continent()
if (!is.null(stats)) {
  print(stats)
}

# Get yesterday's data sorted by number of cases
stats_yesterday <- get_covid_stats_by_continent(yesterday = TRUE, sort = "cases")

## End(Not run)

infectiousR documentation built on Nov. 9, 2025, 5:07 p.m.