U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with members of the media after signing the Congressional funding bill for coronavirus response at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 6, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
During his Rose Garden address earlier today, President Donald Trump announced that Google is working to build a website to help screen Americans who may have coronavirus.
“Google is going to develop a website — it’s going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past — to determine if a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location,” Trump said. “We have many, many locations behind us, by the way. We cover this country and large parts of the world, by the way. We’re not gonna be talking about the world right now, but we cover very, very strongly our country. Stores in virtually every location. Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. They have made tremendous progress.”
But Google was quick to correct the president, issuing a statement via a Twitter account. The site is actually being built by Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which is Google’s parent company. The website is being designed for people who seek testing in the San Francisco Bay area, not nationwide.
“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,” read the official statement.
According to Carolyn Wang, Verily’s communication’s lead, the “triage website” was initially only going to be available to healthcare workers, but that the president’s announcement prompted a change in plans. Anyone will be able to visit it, she said, though she clarified that the website will only be able to direct people to “pilot sites” for testing in the Bay Area. Verily plans to expand “over time,” she added.
The president declared a national emergency earlier today. which will allow the federal government to tap up to $50 billion in emergency relief funds. The death toll in the United States now stands at 48, with more than 2,200 confirmed cases, though that the number is likely to be significantly higher due to a testing shortage.
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