Abstract
Public health agencies have suggested nonpharmaceutical interventions to curb the spread of the COVID-19 infections. The study intended to explore the information-seeking behavior and information needs on preventive measures for COVID-19 in the Philippine context. The search interests and related queries for COVID-19 terms and each of the preventive measures for the period from December 31, 2019 to April 6, 2020 were generated from Google Trends. The search terms employed for COVID-19 were coronavirus, ncov, covid-19, covid19 and “covid 19.” The search terms of the preventive measures considered for this study included “community quarantine”, “cough etiquette”, “face mask” or facemask, “hand sanitizer”, handwashing or “hand washing” and “social distancing.” Spearman’s correlation was employed between the new daily COVID-19 cases, COVID-19 terms and the different preventive measures. The relative search volume for the coronavirus disease showed an increase up to the pronouncement of the country’s first case of COVID-19. An uptrend was also evident after the country’s first local transmission was confirmed. A strong positive correlation (rs = .788, p < .001) was observed between the new daily cases and search interests for COVID-19. The search interests for the different measures and the new daily cases were also positively correlated. Similarly, the search interests for the different measures and the COVID-19 terms were all positively correlated. The search interests for “face mask” or facemask, “hand sanitizer” and handwashing or “hand washing” were more correlated with the search interest for COVID-19 than with the number of new daily COVID-19 cases. The search interests for “cough etiquette”, “social distancing” and “community quarantine” were more correlated with the number of new daily COVID-19 cases than with the search interest for COVID-19. The public sought for additional details such as type, directions for proper use, and where to purchase as well as do-it-yourself alternatives for personal protective items. Personal protective or community measures were expected to be accompanied with definitions and guidelines as well as be available in translated versions. Google Trends could be a viable option to monitor and address the information needs of the public during a disease outbreak. Capturing and analyzing the search interests of the public could support the design and timely delivery of appropriate information essential to drive preventive measures during a disease outbreak.
Highlights
The number of global infections for the coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has gone past 500,000 after around three months since the onset of the outbreak [1]
As of March 28, the number of confirmed cases in the Philippines exceeded 1,000 with the Department of Health (DOH) mentioning that cases are bound to increase as the testing efforts are expanded [4]
The results show a brief decline followed by an abrupt increase in the search interest for “community quarantine” within a week of the announced advance of the country to Code Red Sublevel 2
Summary
The number of global infections for the coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has gone past 500,000 after around three months since the onset of the outbreak [1]. From [5], cases of pneumonia cases with unknown etiology were reported in Wuhan, China on December 31. This would later be regarded as an outbreak of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19. As a measure to contain the spread of the virus, a State of Public Health Emergency was declared on March 8 with Coronavirus alert Code Red Sublevel 1 through Proclamation No 922, s.2020. This alert was raised to Code Red Sublevel 2 on March 12. The entire country was, eventually, placed under a state of calamity due to the COVID19 threat on March 18
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