Analysis of public search interest regarding government containment policy on COVID-19 new cases in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore

Background: As preventive measures to curb coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)transmission, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore had imposed web-accessible regulations where the popularity of relative internet search volume can be obtained from Google Trends(GT). This research aimed to seek the relationship between public search interest and countries policies, furthermore to observe whether the GT data could be utilized as a tool to make a risk communication during this pandemic. Methods: This retrospective study used GT to analyze the relative search volume (RSV) of keywords large-scale social restrictions (Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar – PSBB ), MovementControl Order (MCO) or Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) and Circuit Breaker (CB) for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore respectively. Daily number of COVID-19 confirmed cases were collected and analyzed using Pearson correlation and time-lag with P<0.05. Every search interest peak and mobility trends changes were qualitatively analyzed. Results: The results exhibited the relationship between the government containment policy, the peaks of analyzed RSV keywords and the mobility trends. The containment policy has significant relationships with COVID-19 daily cases (P<0.05). Conclusion: These results indicated that the government could use GT RSV as a strategy of crisis and risk communication to intervene public behavior towards the pandemic.