Instagram cofounders created a website to track the state-by-state spread of covid-19 in the US.

rt.live uses a statistic known in epidemiology as the effective reproduction number. It tracks the average number of people who catch the virus from one infected person.

‘we’re trying to take what is a complex topic and boil it down to a simple number that anyone can view from their home,’ said former Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom.

The covid tracking project is an all-volunteer initiative that collects data from trustworthy sources, such as public health authorities.

Systrom said the goal with rt.live was to give people a better understanding of what the spread of the virus looks like at the local level.