Table 3. COVID-19 hashtag trends per month used by the Canadian government and health officials’ accounts from December 31, 2019, to August 31, 2020, demonstrating the topic shift.
| Months | Dec 2019 | Jan 2020 | Feb 2020 | Mar 2020 | Apr. 2020 | May 2020 | Jun 2020 | Jul 2020 | Aug 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hashtags and their occurrence | N/A | MENTALHEALTH (44) | LONGTERMCARE (49) | FLATTENTHECURVE (238) | FLATTENTHECURVE (193) | PHYSICALDISTANCING (151) | PHYSICALDISTANCING (79) | TESTANDTRACE (60) | TESTANDTRACE (49) |
| LONGTERMCARE (17) | MENTALHEALTH (20) | SOCIALDISTANCING (120) | PHYSICALDISTANCING (184) | MENTALHEALTH (96) | TESTANDTRACE (78) | MENTALHEALTH (44) | EPIDEMIOLOGY (44) | ||
| PLANKTHECURVE (80) | STAYHOME (85) | TESTANDTRACE (67) | FLATTENTHECURVE (35) | PHYSICALDISTANCING (43) | MENTALHEALTH (37) | ||||
| PHYSICALDISTANCING (79) | PLANKTHECURVE (82) | FLATTENTHECURVE (65) | LONGTERMCARE (24) | EPIDEMIOLOGY (40) | PHYSICALDISTANCING (22) | ||||
| LONGTERMCARE (55) | MENTALHEALTH (65) | STRONGERTOGETHER (44) | MENTALHEALTH (22) | LONGTERMCARE (31) | LONGTERMCARE (17) | ||||
| SLOWTHESPREAD (51) | LONGTERMCARE (48) | PLANKTHECURVE (30) | EPIDEMIOLOGY (21) | DÉPISTAGE (17) | DÉPISTAGE (16) | ||||
| MENTALHEALTH (34) | PROTECTTHEVULNERABLE (43) | STAYHOME (25) | DÉPISTAGE (17) | PLANKTHECURVE (15) | STAYSAFE (6) | ||||
| STAYHOME (26) | TESTANDTRACE (42) | PROTECTTHEVULNERABLE (25) | PLANKTHECURVE (16) | FLATTENTHECURVE (10) | STRONGERTOGETHER (4) | ||||
| PROTECTTHEVULNERABLE (25) | TOGETHERAPART (42) | LONGTERMCARE (18) | TOGETHERAPART (15) | STRONGERTOGETHER (7) | STOPTHESPREAD (4) | ||||
| STRONGERTOGETHER (22) | STRONGERTOGETHER (36) | STOPTHESPREAD (16) | STRONGERTOGETHER (13) | TOGETHERAPART (4) | TOGETHERAPART (3) |