![]() The study period RSVs for each of the search terms were retrieved from the GTs for India. News search is specific for articles published in the media. Web search is a generic search, irrespective of whether the content is images, videos, or text news. The Google search terms used for the analysis were “coronavirus”, “COVID”, “COVID 19”, “corona”, and “virus”. Among them, the five most commonly used keywords were considered. Using this comparison method, we assessed 15 possible keywords that the Indian population might have used. On the results page, the user can add topics to compare them simultaneously in the charts by clicking the + Compare button or remove an item by clicking the “x” that appears in its box when the user hovers his or her cursor over it. Trending keywords are collected based on Google’s Knowledge Graph technology, and data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0 to 100, where the highest point, 100, divides each point on the graph. The Google Trends homepage ( features clustered topics that Google detects to be related and trending together on either Web search, YouTube, or Google News. Hence, we have conducted a study to analyze the potential use of GTs to monitor public concern regarding COVID-19 epidemic infection in India and to evaluate the GTs data in predicting the COVID-19 outbreak in India. COVID-19 is one such disease which has the additional feature of being a novel infection in the current scenario. However, it is necessary to determine and confirm the correlation, if any, between GTs and other diseases in the country. It has been shown that relative search volumes (RSV) of terms specific to a disease from GTs can predict outbreaks of that particular disease in India. Both Google and YouTube are free to use, and the data on search terms and patterns are available in open source. India has a major share of people accessing and watching YouTube, with around 265 million active users monthly. YouTube is an archive/database of videos uploaded across the world on multiple subjects and topics. Among search engines, Google has a monopoly in India, with 98.8% of the total search engine market share. ![]() Search engines are one of the most commonly used facilities in the Internet for identifying and learning information on a wide range of subjects. Internet usage among Indians has been on the rise, reaching about 451 million (36%) active users every month, with two-thirds of them being daily users. GTs have been used over the last decade to provide reliable predictions of outbreaks of influenza and other diseases. Search engines and social media tools include Google Trends (GT Web search, YouTube search, News search, Image search), Twitter, Wikipedia, Baidu, Weibo, and so forth. All around the world, non-conventional, informal data sources such as school absenteeism, over the counter drug disbursement, Internet search engines, and social media are being explored and used to supplement formal disease surveillance systems in predicting outbreaks. However, the system captures data only when people access the healthcare service. IDSP enables the government to make evidence-based decisions on outbreaks. India has an established disease surveillance system, the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP), to identify the signals, suspects, and cases of certain notified diseases. This will help us understand what to expect and prepare for in terms of caseload and intensive care requirements. Considering the rising menace of COVID-19, it is essential to explore the methods and resources that might predict the case numbers expected and help in identifying the locations of outbreaks. As of July 7, 2020, India recorded 719,665 cases and 20,160 people succumbed to COVID-19. The case numbers were almost static for over a month and gradually started to increase during early March. India reported its first case of COVID-19 on Janu. India is a low middle-income country in the South-East Asia region with a population of 1.3 billion. ![]() Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading across the globe and has become a significant public health threat to humankind infecting millions worldwide.
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