All Publicity is Good Publicity? Google Queries For Corona Beer Rise Amid Spread of Coronavirus

A coronavirus dubbed 2019-nCoV, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is continuing to spread, and has been detected in 15 countries besides China; the number of infected people has risen to 7,700 with 170 other succumbing to the virus.

While news about the spread of 2019-nCoV coronavirus has been hitting the front pages of news wires worldwide, there still are those who confuse the deadly virus with the popular Mexican beer.

According to the latest Google Trends data, searches for Corona beer, along with the phrases "corona beer virus" and "beer virus" have drastically surged over the past week.

The data shows that nearly 60 percent of the people making the corresponding queries searched the term "beer virus" while 43 percent searched for "corona beer virus."

Google's data also shows that searches for "coronavirus symptoms" increased 1,050 percent this week, while the queries "what is coronavirus" and "is coronavirus deadly" have also topped the search chart.

"We believe, by and large, that consumers understand there's no linkage between the virus and our business", Maggie Bowman, senior communications director at Constellation Brands, Corona's producer, told Business Insider on 29 January.

The novel strain of coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December and has since spread within China and to at least 15 other countries, including South Korea, which has already registered four confirmed cases. 

The epidemic has already left 170 people dead in China as well as 7,711 more infected.