Amidst challenges in accessing accurate Covid-19 data in Romania, a team from Babes-Bolyai University, including five economists and a data scientist, developed the Romanian Economic Impact Monitor using Grafana to provide a comprehensive dashboard that tracks the pandemic's impact and correlates it with government actions and economic indicators. This initiative emerged as a response to the inadequacy of government-released information, aiming to inform the public effectively through an easily accessible platform. The decision to use Grafana was driven by its ease of implementation and flexibility, allowing the team to create a detailed landing page with layered data, including key indicators like case numbers and economic figures, presented in an intuitive format. Despite not being software engineers, the team successfully operated the site for over a year, making it one of the country's most visited Covid information sources, illustrating the role of universities in crisis communication and public service.