ABSTRACT
Introduction. To investigate the public interest in cancer screening before, during and after one year of the COVID-19 pandemic, in relation to the number of cases and deaths caused by the coronavirus. Material and methods. Google Trends (GT) was used to obtain data on online interest in screening for the most common cancer types during COVID-19 pandemic. Results. It was found that although online interest in screening collapsed during the early stages of the pandemic, it managed to gradually return to its pre-pandemic levels six months later despite a growing number of COVID-19 related deaths. Nevertheless, some data and reports suggest that this unprecedented crisis may result in increased mortality and incidence rates. Conclusions. The study raises the importance of continuous and active actions aimed at raising cancer awareness which appears to be crucially important during a public health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The article presents the original methodology of using agent-based modeling (ABM) for the numerical simulations of the COVID-19 pandemic's development. The proposed solution makes it possible to analyze changes in the number of cases both in space and time. The devised methodology enables considering spatial conditions in terms of population distribution, such as places of work, rest, or residence, and uses multi-agent modeling to consider spatial interactions. Numerical simulations utilize the spatial and demographic data in GIS databases and the GAMA environment that enables the parameterization of the epidemiological model. Testing the developed methodology on a test area also allowed for checking the effects of a potential decrease or increase in social restrictions numerically. The simulations performed show a high correlation between the level of social distancing and the number of COVID-19 cases. © 2021 IEEE.