COVID-19 - Individual cases spread

This is a sample template of a Form that can be used to collect information at individual level. You may need to collect data to track an individual patient along with the people they came in contact with while they were infected with COVID-19 in order to contact them. You may also need to collect data regarding the places they have travelled to.  At the same time you may need to keep the individual anonymous.

In this example, we will use a Reference Form to collect all the medical institutions and their geographical location in one place to make sure that all users reporting use the same names for the medical institutions. Then, we will add a Form with two Subforms to collect data for individuals. We will link the Form to the Reference Form and we will use a Serial Number to anonymize the individual.  

You can create a third Form with information about this individual and link to this one using a Reference field so that only selected users can access the details of the individual.

The Form will collect information about the individual such as the day the individual was tested and the institutions where they were tested. It will also collect information as to whether the individual was in contact with other people or travelled 15 days before or after the testing. The number of days can be changed according to your needs.

With the first Subform we will collect information regarding the travels the individual has made. Users will add one Record to the Subform for each travel.

With the second Subform we will collect information regarding the people the individual was in contact with during the defined period. Users will add one Record to the Subform for each contact.

You can use the Form and Subform Schemas at the end of the article to directly import the fields to a new Form and Subform and save time. You can also duplicate a Form to quickly create similar Forms if needed.

The example uses dummy data.

Add a Reference Form

To make sure that all users reporting use the same names for the medical institutions, you can create a Reference Form with a Text field and add all the medical institutions of your country as Records.

By making that Text field a Key field you can then refer to it in your Form and users will be able to select from the list of available institutions the institutions for which they report. In the Reference Form you can also reference ActivityInfo’s built-in Geodatabase to link each institution to a geographical location.

  • In the Database Design section, click on 'Add form' to add a Form.
  • Give a name to your Form and add a Reference field to reference the Geodatabase of ActivityInfo and a Text field for the name of the institution.
  • Make the Text field a Key field so as to link to it in the next Form.
  • Save the Form.
  • In the Table View page, click on 'Add record' and add the first institution of your country. Click on 'Save record' to save it.
  • Repeat the same process to add all the medical institutions. If you have a list of institutions available you can import them as Records to this Form.
  • On the URL of the Table View page you can view the Form Id of this Form. If you want to import a fields list instead of designing a Form using the Form Schemas in the end of the article, you will need to use this Id. 

You can change the visibility settings of the Form to Reference data to make sure users doing data entry don't get confused with it.

Add a Form

The Parent Form will link to the list of medical institutions and will use a Serial Number to anonymize the individual. Users will be able to select the institution for which they are reporting from the list. It will also use a Date field with a Code to collect the date the individual was tested and it will collect information regarding the contacts and travels of the individual for a period of 15 days before and after the Date of testing. You can change this number to meet your needs.

  • In the Database Design section, click on 'Add form' to add another Form.
  • Give a name to the Form and add a Reference field. Select the Reference Form that you created in the previous step.
  • Add a Serial Number. This is the Key of your Form.
  • Add a Date field and give it a Code, we gave it the Label "Date of testing".
  • Add two Single Selection fields. We gave them the Labels and Options below. You can change these to meet your needs:
    • Label: Individual has travelled 15 days before or after the date of testing - Options: Yes, No
    • Label: Individual has been in contact with other people 15 days before or after date of testing - Options: Yes, No
  • Add a Subform field for the first Subform and give it a descriptive name.
  • Add another Subform field for the second Subform and give it a descriptive name.
Add the first Subform

We will add a Subform  to collect the date when the individual has travelled and the countries of departure and destination. We can add a Single Selection field to define the current location of the individual.

  • Click on the Subform to open it.
  • Add a Date field to collect the Date of travel and two Text fields to collect the Country of departure and the Country of destination.
  • Add a Single Selection field to define the current location of the individual.
  • Save the Subform and open the next Subform.
Add the second Subform

With the second Subform we will collect the date when the individual came in contact with another individual and some contact details for that individual.

  • Click on the Subform to open it.
  • Add a Date field to collect the Date of contact.
  • Add a Text field and a Multi-line text field to collect information about the contacted individual.
  • Save the Subform and the Form.
Form Schemas

Instead of manually designing the Form and the Subform,  you can directly import the fields list to your Form. The following files contain the fields list for the Form and the Subform. As this is a sample Form, you might need different fields so you can add new fields, edit fields or delete the fields that you don't need to customize the Form. The Form links to a Reference Form with a Reference field, (so as to include a list with all the medical institutions), so make sure you add a Reference Form first, as described in the first step.

  • To import the fields list to the Form, add a new Form and give it a name.
  • Then, download and open the first file which includes the fields list for the Parent Form. You need to find the Reference Form Id of the Reference Form from step one and add it the cell in the Row 'reference', Column 'Referenced Form'. You can find the Form Id in the URL of the Table View page of the Reference Form.
  • Copy the cells along with their Headers.
  • In the Form Design page, open the fields palette of the Form and click on "Paste field list from spreadsheet". Paste the cells and click on "Add fields" to add them.
  • Continue with the first Subform. To import the fields list to the Subform, click on the Subform to open it. 
  • Download the second file and copy the cells along with their Headers.
  • As before, open the fields palette of the Subform and click on "Paste field list from spreadsheet". 
  • Paste the cells and click on "Add fields" to add them.
  • Save the Subform to go back to the Parent Form.
  • Continue with the second Subform. To import the fields list to the Subform, click on the Subform to open it. 
  • Download the third file and copy the cells along with their Headers.
  • As before, open the fields palette of the Subform and click on "Paste field list from spreadsheet". 
  • Paste the cells and click on "Add fields" to add them.
  • Save the Subform to go back to the Parent Form.
  • Save the Form.