Identifying the outbreak signal of covid-19 before the response of the traditional disease monitoring system

Abstract

New coronavirus cases and related deaths are continuing to occur worldwide. Early identification of the emergence of novel outbreaks of infectious diseases is critical to the generation of timely responses. We performed a comparative study to determine the feasibility of the early detection of the COVID-19 outbreak in China based on influenza surveillance data and the internet-based Baidu search index to evaluate the timelines of the alert signals compared with the traditional case reporting and response systems. An abnormal increase in the number of influenza-like illnesses (ILI) occurred at least one month earlier than the clinical reports of pneumonia with unknown causes and the conventional monitoring system. The peak of the search volume was 20 days earlier than the issuance of the massive official warning about the epidemic. The findings from this study suggest that monitoring abnormal surges of ILI and identifying peaks of online searches of key terms can provide early signals of novel disease outbreaks. We emphasize the importance of broadening the potential of syndromic surveillance, internet searches, and social media data together with the traditional disease surveillance system to enhance early detection and understanding of emerging infectious diseases.