Hannah Hammoud
During some of Melbourne’s toughest weeks in lockdown, checking for the daily covid-19 case numbers became a routine part of people’s day to day lives.
Brimbank local Anthony Macali is the founder of the CovidLive.com.au website which quickly became a trusted point of call for data and information relating to covid-19 in Australia.
Marking the King’s Birthday celebrations, Mr Macali has been honoured for his contribution to community health and awarded a medal for the Order of Australia (OAM).
Landing a spot on the Covid-19 honour roll, Mr Macali was awarded the title for his contributions during the long-haul course of the pandemic. Compiling storms of data from across the country into easy to digest numbers.
As shops closed and many Melburnians were sent off to work from home, Mr Macali put his skills as a career data analyst to work.
“I was worried about what was going on and just wanted to find out what the case numbers were and look for any other data that was out there,” he said.
“What I found wasn’t very much and it was really difficult to get information. All you could find was a report that came out once a day and when it was published it was already a few hours behind.
Mr Macali took things into his own hands and tuned in to the press conferences from each state and territory everyday, tracking the covid statistics for the country for three long years.
At its peak, Mr Macali’s website had more than 200,000 visitors a day. His advocacy for vaccination rates to be made publicly available resulted in a commitment from the federal government to publish the data at the earliest opportunity available.
Mr Macali said the website served as an outlet for people to gain a sense of control in a time of great uncertainty. Despite his dedicated efforts, he said that news of his award still came as a “big surprise” to him.
“I have always received positive feedback from users of the website, but it is nice to be recognised officially,” he said.
“We’ve all gone into a new phase of returning back to normal after the pandemic and we’ve quickly forgotten about it, but it is nice to have those difficult times acknowledged, it’s a small reminder of how tough it was and how we all pooled together to help each other.”
