Correlation analysis between COVID-19 cases and google trends data: a situational analysis based on states in Malaysia: article

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Malaysia evolved from January 2020 until recently. The purpose of this research is to study state-by-state association between COVID-19 incidence and Google Trends (GT) in Malaysia. This correlational research is conducted by measuring relationship between daily COVID-19 cases and 10 Google Keywords’ relative search volumes (RSV) in Malaysia; 13 states and 3 federal territories. In this study, COVID-19 cases development, keywords popularity over time and keyword association towards COVID-19 event based on sub regions were discovered through descriptive analysis and statistical analysis method. Finding of this study shows there is 3 disparate keyword popularity trends upon COVID-19 case increment. Also, study result discovered that COVID-19 cases are weakly to moderately associated (rs = -0.481 to rs = 0.679) with keyword search during study period. As for state-by-state analysis finding, dual-association; negative to positive association (rs = -0.371 to rs = 0.407) is observed between COVID-19 cases and Google Trends data. In addition, this study provides an overview of Malaysians’ awareness level towards COVID-19 issue based on states. To conclude, this study proposes there is an insufficient approach of risk communication that utilize online platform to combat COVID-19 in Malaysia. Data presented in this study is valuable to design relevant strategy using digital medium as a risk communication tool. Further research can be performed on time-series analysis for prior prediction of COVID-19 outbreak in states of Malaysia.