SAN FRANCISCO, March 14, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump
announced Friday that internet giant Alphabet is creating a website where
people will be able to check whether they have symptoms of the novel
coronavirus.
Verily Life Sciences, once a project in a Google X lab devoted to
“moonshot” projects and now its own health business unit, is testing a “tool
to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing,” Google confirmed on
Twitter.
“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,” the
tweet said, referring to San Francisco and surrounding communities.
Trump thanked Google while declaring a state of national emergency due to
the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Google is helping to develop a website “to determine whether a test is
warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location,” Trump
said.
Google has a large team of engineers devoted to the project, and has made
significant progress, according to Trump.
“Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus and help all
Americans impacted by this,” Trump said.
“Again, we don’t want everybody taking this test. It is totally
unnecessary. And this will pass.”
A launch date for the website should be known by late Sunday, according to
Vice President Mike Pence.
“You can go to the website, type in your symptoms and be given direction
whether or not a test is indicated,” Pence said.
The website will then direct users to locations where they can obtain
drive-through testing, he said.
San Francisco has begun setting up temporary, drive-through coronavirus
testing locations.