A Comparative Analysis of Tweets from the South Indian States based on COVID-19 Omicron wave

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 pandemic had shaken societies in the world at various levels. Most organizations were forced to adopt the Work from Home strategy from 2020 onwards. This had reportedly increased internet and social media usage among the people. India was also not different from the rest of the world. The nation was affected by the second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were some of the affected states in the nation;with Tamil Nadu reporting fewer positive cases and Test Positive Rate (TPR) compared to that Kerala. This paper focuses on the attitude of people towards the pandemic by extracting tweets from Twitter. A comparative study between the two states was conducted. After analyzing the rumors and information shared by the people through tweets, it has been identified that the people of Tamil Nadu were a bit more conscious than the people in Kerala. The study also reveals that people in Kerala were not vigilant during the Omicron wave as compared to the time before. © 2022 IEEE.