Los Angeles Times Launches Spanish-Language Edition of Coronavirus in California Tracker

The Los Angeles Times is expanding its utility journalism offerings with the launch of a Spanish-language version of its digital coronavirus tracker, “El coronavirus en California.” Mapping the extent of coronavirus cases in California through an independent, continual survey of dozens of local health agencies across the state, the tracker will publish daily updates and data analysis in Spanish on latimes.com/espanol and in the L.A. Times mobile app.

As part of the newspaper’s commitment to increasing its Spanish-language news coverage, and because of the disproportionate toll the pandemic has been taking on the Latino community, the tracker’s interactive maps and charts, including COVID-19 case counts and death tallies by county, as well as the latest guidelines on state closures, restrictions and vaccine rollout will now be available in Spanish.

“The Los Angeles Times en Español staff worked with the Data and Graphics team to make a companion version of the tracker available in Spanish,” said Times Special Projects editor Angel Rodriguez. “It’s been nearly a year since the tracker first launched and we’ve seen how readers throughout the state rely on it for day-to-day updates on how the pandemic is affecting their communities. We believe this will be a useful source of information for our readers whose first or preferred language is Spanish.”

The Times Data and Graphics team launched the initiative last March and has since cofounded a statewide collaborative reporting effort, working with news outlets across California to gather and share data, which allows each outlet to focus on analysis of various aspects of COVID-19.

“In order to protect their families, everyone in America needs to understand the threat posed by the coronavirus,” said Times Data and Graphics editor Ben Welsh. “More than a third of L.A. County residents speak Spanish at home and we want to serve them too.”

For more information about The Times’ coronavirus in California tracker, visit latimes.com/coronavirustracker.