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This study measures the impact of media usage, national culture, globalization, population density and age distribution on the spread of the novel infectious disease COVID-19. The sample includes 18 most populated countries of European Union. The goal of this research is to facilitate planning of governmental preventive measures in face of an epidemic, taking into consideration the national characteristics. Thus, the research focuses specifically on the early stage of the virus spread as this period is the most crucial in the crisis response planning.
The method used in the study is literature review and cross country comparison. The countries in the sample were divided into different groups based on the intensity of specific factors. Subsequently, groups were compared based on the daily new cases between March and June of 2020.
The research proves that the correlation between social media usage and the virus transmission exists. Similar dependency is visible for collectivism, power distance, strict social norms, short-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, trade volume, immigration level and age distribution.

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