Dragutin Novosel¹*, Robert Žunac² and Matija Alanović³

¹Glaserbergstrasse 23, CH - 4056 Basel, Switzerland
²Petra Kružića 8, HR - 47000 Karlovac, Croatia
³SIPA elektronika d.o.o., Ruđera Boškovića 17, HR - 47000 Karlovac, Croatia

*Corresponding Author: Dragutin Novosel, Glaserbergstrasse 23, CH - 4056 Basel.

Received: April 19, 2021; Published: May 22, 2021

Abstract

Background: Recent reports have raised questions about the reliability of reported COVID-19 cases in Croatia. Analysis of the first-digit distribution in a dataset (Benford's law) is widely employed to review data consistency and is used to indicate data manipulation and/or data inconsistency.

Methods: The frequency distribution of the first digit of the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases in Croatia (2020/02/26 - 2020/12/14) was analyzed using Benford's law. Additionally, the last seven seasons (2013/09/30 - 2020/01/12) of reported cases of seasonal flu were analyzed.

Results: The number of newly reported cases of seasonal flu and newly reported cases of COVID- 19 in Croatia do follow a Benford distribution (P = 0.233). From July 18, 2020 until August 28, 2020 the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases did not follow a Benford distribution (P < 0.05).

Interpretation: Our findings strongly suggest that the COVID-19 and seasonal flu data reported in Croatia are reliable. Further analyses are required to explain the disturbance observed in the summer of 2020.

Keywords: COVID-19; Seasonal Flu; Benford's Law; Data Reliability

References

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Citation

Citation: Dragutin Novosel., et al. “COVID-19 and Seasonal Flu Data Reliability Analysis of New Cases Reported in Croatia”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 5.6 (2021): 102-105.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Dragutin Novosel., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.