Using Baidu search values to monitor and predict the confirmed cases of COVID-19 in China: - evidence from Baidu index.

ABSTRACT:

Background

New coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a severe threat to human life and caused a global pandemic. The current research aimed to explore whether the search-engine query patterns could serve as a potential tool for monitoring the outbreak of COVID-19.

Methods

We collected the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases between January 11, 2020, and April 22, 2020, from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The search index values of the most common symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g., fever, cough, fatigue) were retrieved from the Baidu Index. Spearman's correlation analysis was used to analyze the association between the Baidu index values for each COVID-19-related symptom and the number of confirmed cases. Regional dist

SUBMITTER: Tu B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7819631 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature