This short piece explains how the now-famous Johns Hopkins site for tracking the pandemic (https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6) was created and how it is constantly updated.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30120-1/fulltext