Although the president promised that the page will be available very soon and will cover the entire country, it will actually only provide services to various areas of California and is being developed by another company.
US President Donald Trump announced this March 13 that Google will develop a web portal “Which will be completed very quickly”, to help American citizens determine if they need to be tested for the covid-19 and, if so, to provide them with information to perform it. Trump assured that “1,700 Google engineers” are working on the project.
However, the information Trump released does not exactly correspond to reality, since the site is being developed by another company belonging to Alphabet, called Verily, and is still far from reaching the national level.
Google gave publicly on Twitter a statement from Verily in which they assure that “they are developing a tool to help classify people for tests of the covid-19”.
Verily is in the early stages of development and plans to implement the tests in the Bay Area, San Francisco, hoping to expand more widely over time, “she added.
For her part, Carolyn Wang, director of communications for Verily, claimed to The Verge portal that the website in question initially only had to be available to healthcare workers. But after the president’s announcement, anyone can access the site, which will be operational in a few days.
As for Trump’s mention of Google engineers, it appears to be related to a call for volunteers published by Google and Alphabet this week.
Donald Trump declared on this March 13 a national emergency to deal with the outbreak of the new coronavirus in the country. Trump explained that he is taking this measure to “unleash the full power of the federal government” and urged all states to establish emergency centers to help fight the virus.