  The emergence of an epidemic evokes the need to monitor its spread and assess
and validate any mitigation measures enacted by governments and administrative
bodies in real time. We present here a method to observe and quantify this
spread and the response of affected populations and governing bodies and apply
it to COVID-19 as a case study. This method provides means to simultaneously
track in real time quantities such as the mortality and the recovery rates as
well as the number of new infections caused by an infected person. With
sufficient data, this method enables thorough monitoring and assessment of an
epidemic without assumptions regarding the evolution of the pandemic in the
future.
