Global COVID 19 distribution and its association with the selected demographic variables of the countries: A Cross-sectional Infodemiological approach at 10th month of Pandemic

Abstract

Background and objectives: As we are about to enter a year of COVID 19 pandemic, the investigators attempted to pool the COVID 19 cumulative case numbers of 38th epidemiological week and demographic data of all affected countries and looked for any significant association between them. Methods: A cross-sectional infodemiological approach was selected to collect the cumulative data of 156 affected countries from the dashboards last updated on September 20th, 2020. Results: Countries like India, USA, Brazil and Russia were reported with more than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID 19, USA and Brazil had more than 100 K total reported deaths due to COVID-19, and still in India, USA, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, UK, France, Colombia, Spain, Argentina and Peru had more than 100 K active cases of COVID 19. It is shown that there is a significant association between the total population and the continents of the affected countries and the global COVID 19 distribution including the proportion of tests per 100 population (p<0.05). It is also shown that the majority of European countries conducted >10 tests per 100 population (p<0.05) whereas, <10 tests per 100 population were conducted in African countries (p<0.05). Interpretation and conclusions: Overall, the findings give a cross-sectional glimpse of cumulative global COVID 19 distribution data, which would help the policymakers of the affected countries to evaluate the ongoing COVID 19 preparedness and response measures to come out from the pandemic.