San Francisco (AFP)
Donald Trump announced Friday that the American giant Google is developing a website to allow each American to determine if a coronavirus test is necessary according to his symptoms, and to find the nearest place to carry it out.
"Google is helping to develop a website (...) to determine if a test is warranted and to facilitate the test in a convenient place nearby," the American president announced at a press conference in the Maison's gardens. White.
This site, on which 1,700 engineers work, according to Donald Trump, will cover the United States "and a large part of the world".
"Our primary goal is to stop the spread of the virus and help all affected Americans," said the president, who was criticized for initially minimizing the severity of this global health crisis.
"We are designing a tool to help screen individuals who need a Covid-19 test," confirmed Google’s communication on Twitter.
Verily, the health division of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), is responsible for this task.
"Verily is in the early stages of development (of the site) and plans to start by testing it in the San Francisco area, hoping to expand it more widely afterwards," said Google.
The date when this site will be available should be announced on Sunday evening, said vice president Mike Pence.
"You can go to this site, enter your symptoms and you will be told whether or not a test is necessary," before being directed to the nearest place to take a test, he said.
Mike Pence added that companies will make available part of their parking lot for people to come and test from their car.
The city of San Francisco has started setting up temporary testing locations, where patients can come by appointment and be tested without leaving their vehicle.
© 2020 AFP