Published on: 28 February 2023 | Last updated: 29 November 2023
For users interested in data capturing disorder linked to the coronavirus, ACLED offers a curated data file containing all events that are directly related to the pandemic. By ‘directly related’, we mean all events for which the word ‘coronavirus’ is included in the ‘Notes’ column of the ACLED dataset to specifically indicate that the pandemic was an explicit factor. ACLED Researchers include this tag only when an incident report makes obvious that the coronavirus motivated the event (e.g. “A protest occurred in opposition to movement restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavirus”). Events that are directly related to the pandemic include things such as:
- The targeting of healthcare workers responding to the coronavirus
- Violent mobs attacking individuals due to fears of their alleged links to the coronavirus (e.g. Muslims in India; foreigners in Africa; etc.)
- Demonstrations against governance decisions made in response to the coronavirus
No reference to the coronavirus will be made for events that are not directly related to the pandemic (e.g. “A battle occurred and was not connected to the coronavirus”). In this way, ACLED can ensure that the ‘coronavirus’ tag does not trigger such an event’s inclusion in the curated data file as a false positive.
The curated data file can be used for analysis of the above directly related events. This file is updated weekly as ACLED publishes new data.It is important to note that events that occur during this period may be indirectly related to the coronavirus; these are not captured in this data file. These include things such as:
- Changes (or not) in conflict patterns as a result of ceasefires announced in response to the coronavirus
- Changes in demonstration patterns (at large, such as the social movements beginning in 2019) as a result of restrictions on movement in response to the coronavirus
- Non-state armed agents capitalizing on the vacuum created by state actors focusing on responses to the coronavirus
To monitor both indirect and direct dynamics, follow our COVID-19 Disorder Tracker (CDT), where these patterns are analyzed on a weekly basis.
