get_covid_stats_by_country: Get COVID-19 Statistics for All Countries

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

Get COVID-19 Statistics for All Countries

Description

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

Usage

get_covid_stats_by_country(
  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 fetches COVID-19 summary statistics for each country. Useful for global surveillance or international comparisons. Requires an active internet connection.

Value

A data frame containing:

• country: Country 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: Population estimate for each country.

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 real-time COVID-19 data for all countries
all_countries <- get_covid_stats_by_country()
if (!is.null(all_countries)) {
  head(all_countries)
}

# Get sorted data by number of deaths reported yesterday
yesterday_deaths <- get_covid_stats_by_country(yesterday = TRUE, sort = "deaths")

## End(Not run)

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