Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 26, 2025

Swabbing the Urban Environment - A Pipeline for Sampling and Detection of SARS-CoV-2 From Environmental Reservoirs
Published on: April 9, 2021
Public awareness of preventive measures against COVID-19: an infodemiology study
1SH Ho Urology Centre, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Introduction:
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to an increase in global awareness of relevant public health preventive measures. This awareness can be explored using online search trends from major search engines, such as Google Trends. We investigated the relationship between public awareness of preventative measures and progression of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
Search data for five queries ('mask', 'hand washing', 'social distancing', 'hand sanitizer', and 'disinfectant') were extracted from Google Trends in the form of relative search volume (RSV). Global incidence data for COVID-19 were obtained from 1 January to 30 June 2020. These data were analysed and illustrated using a global temporal RSV trend diagram, a geographical RSV distribution chart, scatter plots comparing geographical RSV with average number of daily cases, and heat maps comparing temporal trends of RSV with average number of daily cases.
Results:
Global temporal trends revealed multiple increases in RSV, associated with specific COVID-19-related news events. The geographical distribution showed top regions of interest for various preventive measures. For the queries 'mask', 'hand washing', 'hand sanitizer', and 'disinfectant', heat maps demonstrated patterns of early RSV peaks in regions with lower average number of daily cases, when the temporal element was incorporated into the analysis.
Conclusion:
Early public awareness of multiple preventive measures was observed in regions with lower average number of daily cases. Our findings indicate optimal public health communication regarding masks, hand washing, hand sanitiser, and disinfectant in the general population during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Early public awareness may facilitate future disease control efforts by public health authorities.
Related Concept Videos
Introduction to Epidemiology
Healthcare Associated Infections II: Preventive Measures
The best practices for preventing healthcare-associated infections include hand hygiene, patient risk...
Prevalence and Incidence
Prevalence indicates the proportion of individuals in a population who have a specific disease or health...
Steps in Outbreak Investigation
Bias in Epidemiological Studies
Principles of Disease Surveillance

