In fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, Google is adding a new feature of ‘COVID LAYER’ in Google map. Google says that with the help of this feature, users would be able to know the status of COVID-19 in the areas where they are travelling. Yet there is no fixed date for the release of the feature. For the Android and IOS users, a new update of Google maps would be available this week. This information was tweeted by the company.
7 day new average cases would be shown per 100,000 people for the area of the map being viewed along with the label that will tell if the cases are up or down, by clicking on the layer “COVID-19 info” by tapping on the layer button on the top right-hand corner of the screen.
Along with this, there is also a colour coding feature that will identify new cases in a region. Data appears at the country level for all the 220 countries and territories that support Google Maps. State and city-level data is available.
Google will be collecting data from different areas including John Hopkins, New York Times and Wikipedia. Public health organisations like the World health organisation, government health ministries, along with state and local health agencies and hospitals send the data to the sources. This data is being expanded to Google Maps because Google maps provide essential information on how to get from place to place especially during the pandemic when one has to think about safety.
To help you navigate the world safely, you'll start seeing information about new COVID cases in an area with data from sources like @nytimes, @JohnsHopkins, & @Wikipedia in a new layer on Maps.
Rolling out on iOS & Android, with more ways to stay up-to-date coming soon. 👍 pic.twitter.com/iWB02T0aAB
— Google Maps (@googlemaps) September 23, 2020
The tweet says, “This week, we are introducing the COVID-19 in Maps, a tool that shows critical information about COVID-19 cases in an area so you can make more informed decisions about where to go and what to do.”