With shelter-in-place orders now widespread, COVID-19 has been unrelenting as it spreads throughout the world. The World Health Organization declared it a pandemic last month, and since then, the total number of confirmed cases has continually rose, recently passing the one million mark. With newer ways to detect the virus coming through, the number is only likely to continue escalating over the next few weeks.

That's why online maps are so vital in a situation like this as everyone needs to understand where the coronavirus outbreak is and how to address it. Even if your state isn't sheltering-in-place, it's important to stay informed and online maps are an integral part of being prepared.

Related: Social Distancing Map Uses Phone Data: Check How Your State Ranks

The choice of online maps do vary with some as specific as the number of confirmed cases and deaths in your city, county, state, and country, while others can show hotspots to be most wary of. These online maps update regularly too, and remain running even with heavy traffic.

The Best Online Maps To Track COVID-19

Virus map

Bing's COVID-19 map offers the best of both worlds as it's simple and specific. Within the online nationwide map, you can look up any state, and get a chart of how coronavirus is affecting each county. It shows trends and even offers links to articles and videos. The WHO and the CDC both provide the data for this website.

Straight from the source, the Center of Disease Control also offers a COVID-19 map. As expected, it's the most informative of the list and provides links and information relating to the virus. However, the online map often redirects the user to other sites: if you click on any state on the map, it'll take you to the state's official department of public health website. This site is perfect for the resources, but the online map itself is not as straightforward as some of the others. In contrast, Google's online map is the most straightforward. It is very easy to navigate and what it lacks in specificity, it makes up in its simplicity. It'll keep you informed, but don't expect too much else from it.

For a map with impressive interactive abilities, John Hopkins University's COVID-19 map remains near the top of the list. JHU's online map can zoom in to any region of the world and provide hyper-specific data in many cities. However, it relies on publicly available data from multiple sources, so the data's accuracy isn't absolute. That said, it's updated regularly and as of last month, it accumulates over 1.2 billion daily requests. Alternatively, many online newspapers offer statewide, nationwide and worldwide online maps, although in terms of quality the best is likely to be the New York Times. Set up more like an article, the NYT's online map offers a lot of information on coronavirus, including links to other articles and websites to help keep you informed. While the decision of which map is best will come down to how you prefer the information you're getting, the most important thing of all is knowing more about coronavirus and how its spreading.

More: Coronavirus Leads to Massive Video Conferencing App Downloads