Coronavirus Update: Trump, Google Not On The Same Page As Latter Is Not Building A Nationwide Website

After President Donald Trump made claims about Google building a countrywide website for coronavirus testing, the search engine giant was compelled to release a statement.

Alphabet’s subsidiary, Verily, is building a much smaller triage website. This website will show people coronavirus testing locations in the Bay Area.

After more than an hour after President Trump’s press conference, Google’s communication Twitter handle tweeted an official statement from Verily.

“We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing. Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time. We appreciate the support of government officials and industry partners and thank the Google engineers who have volunteered to be part of this effort.”

Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet, which is developing this website. The Verge spoke with Carolyn Wang, communications lead at Verily. Wang revealed that, in the beginning, it was to be provided to health care workers only. However, after this announcement, anyone will be able to access it. She added that the portal will only provide information about testing centers in the Bay area and the company plans to expand in the future.

The coronavirus has spread across 139 countries. The coronavirus death toll is at 5,429 globally with 3,075 deaths in the Hubei province of China. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases is 145,369.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile and Comcast have announced that there will be no internet data cap policies in place during these testing times.

T-Mobile has stated that it is removing data caps for all smartphone users. Moreover, the service provider is giving additional 20GB of mobile hotspot data. Verizon and AT&T have implemented similar measures for their customers, The Verge reported.

Elsewhere, Apple has announced that all its retails stores outside of Greater China will shut down until March 27 as the world deals with the coronavirus pandemic.