EDEN PRAIRIE, Minnesota — New COVID-19 data streams in every day and there's a lot of it.
So Connor Holm decided to make it easier to track by creating his own website and app.
"[It has] the current amount of people that got it within the day, the total cases, the total deaths, stats like that. It can display for you and you're able to easily access all of it," explained Holm.
Working on this project started out as a hobby, something more for fun. The high school senior soon learned there's a lot of good that could come from this side programming project.
"I didn't really realize, you know, the impact in our local community until I started looking at these numbers."
Scrolling through his site, he showcased the data. “I mean from here alone, I can just pull this up and in Hennepin County there's been 91,000 cases and in Minnesota alone there's only about 404,000. So that's almost a fourth of all of Minnesota's cases within our county," remarked Holm.
The teen explained, you can see the rise and fall of cases in your area and make educated decisions.
"Really, I hope people just have a way where they can look at this website, see the data, and from my website be able to make a decision. Whether, 'Hey, the cases are high today, maybe I'm going to stay in and play it safe.' And with that, maybe a life can be saved," said Holm.
Connor's ingenuity helped him win the 2020 Congressional App Challenge in Minnesota's Third District.
Representative Dean Phillips tells us, "Now more than ever, we need thoughtful young people like Connor who care about our country and want to make a difference."
Holm is just thrilled he can do his part. "I think it's awesome that this project has such an impact on the community."
The app isn't available for download on platforms just yet, but you can watch this YouTube video to see the inner-workings of the project.
Connor plans to go to college after graduation to study computer science.