Google Maps now come with a feature that reveals the number of Covid-19 cases per area and can be accessed by 220 countries.
The new Covid-19 layer to the service can help Google Maps users determine whether the trend is rising or falling through its labels. They will be able to view a color-coded map based on the number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 people.
The feature will be accessed by 220 countries and territories that Google Maps currently serve. The granular data can reach the city level, but this depends on the numbers Google is able to store.
According to Google, the information comes from different sources, such as Johns Hopkins, The New York Times, and Wikipedia, which gather data from local and intergovernmental government organizations. These are the same sources of Google when it shows COVID data on its search results pages.
This new layer is available for Google Maps on Android and iOS.
Coronavirus pandemic response
Aside from releasing the new Covid-19 layer of Google Maps, Google has implemented several other efforts to respond to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Alphabet, the parent company of tech giant Google, has asked its staff in the US and Canada to work from home amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
Chris Rackow, Google’s vice president of global security, wrote an email to workers saying: “Out of an abundance of caution, and for the protection of Alphabet and the broader community, we now recommend you work from home if your role allows.”
However, Alphabet said its offices in North America will remain open for those whose work requires them to come in.
In July, Google announced 100,000 scholarships and online certificate programs. It will also award over $10 million in grants to nonprofit organizations.
The Google scholarships 100,000 are need-based and offered to individuals enrolled in any of the tech giant’s career certificate programs.
The three new online certificate programs of Google are in data analytics, project management, and user experience design.
These fields were chosen because they can lead to “high-growth, high-paying careers.”
Google employees will be providing and teaching the certificates. Future students do not need to have a college degree to participate in the programs. They can complete the programs in three to six months and take them through the online learning platform Coursera.
According to Google, it will treat all of its certificates as the equivalent of a four-year college degree for relevant roles at the company.
“This is not revenue-generating for Google,” says Google vice president, Lisa Gevelber, who manages Grow with Google and Google for Startups and serves as the company’s Americas chief marketing officer. “There’s a small cost from the Coursera platform itself — the current pricing is $49 a month — but we want to ensure that anyone who wants to have this opportunity, can have it.”
Google will also award over $10 million in grants to YWCA, NPower, and JFF. These are nonprofit groups that work with Google to offer workforce development to women, veterans, and underrepresented Americans.
