Online Public Attention During the Early Days of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Infoveillance Study Based on Baidu Index.

The national public's demand for epidemic information is urgent regardless of whether it is located in the hardest hit area. The public was more sensitive to the daily new case data that represents the progress of the epidemic, but the public's attention to the epidemic situation in other areas may lag behind. We could set the Baidu Index as the sentinel and the database in the online infoveillance system for infectious disease and public health emergencies. According to the monitoring data, the government needs to prevent and control the possible outbreak in advance and communicate the risks to the public so as to ensure the physical and psychological health of the public in the epidemic.