Association of Public Interest in Preventive Measures and Increased COVID-19 Cases After the Expiration of Stay-at-Home Orders: A Cross-Sectional Study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Following stay-at-home (SAH) orders issued for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), state-level economic concerns increased and many let these orders expire. As a method to measure public preparedness, we sought to explore the association between public interest in preventive measures and the easing of SAH orders - specifically the increases in COVID-19 cases and fatalities after the orders expired.

Methods

Search volume was collected from Google Trends for "hand sanitizer," "social distancing," "COVID testing," and "contact tracing" for each state. Bivariate correlations were computed to analyze associations between public interest in preventive measures, changes in confirmed COVID-19 cases after SAH expirations, COVID-19 case-fatality rates, and by-state presidential

SUBMITTER: Hartwell M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7642507 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature