Figure 1 shows the overall trends of data from the keyword search for ‘coronavirus’ (or ‘冠状病毒’) and ‘pneumonia’ (or ‘肺炎’) via Google Trends, Baidu Index and Sina Weibo Index, and the number of daily new laboratory-confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases. The data from Baidu Index, Sina Weibo Index and national COVID-19 daily incidence data were also normalised to the peak number, so that the values fall into the same range (0–100) during that period.