Google’s hotly anticipated coronavirus screening website officially launched late Sunday evening, albeit only serving residents of Northern California’s Bay Area.
Verily, Google’s sibling company owned by the larger corporate body Alphabet, developed the website, located at the web address Project Baseline.
Per an online blog post, Verily said that it has been working with California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office and federal, state and local public health care workers to establish testing sites in the Bay Area, as well as an online tool “to increase risk screening and testing for people at high risk of COVID-19.”
The tool is designed to help people concerned over their COVID-19 risk determine whether they need to get tested and direct them how to locate testing locations. Testing in Northern California is currently offered in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County.
The website and screening tool is only in a beta version, however, and has limitations for eligible participants. Users must be 18 years of age, a U.S. citizen, able to speak and read English, living in one of the Northern California counties where testing is available and willing to sign a COVID-19 Public Health authorization form. To participate in Project Baseline, users must also create an account and sign an Informed Consent authorization form, per The Verge.
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Verily and Project Baseline’s FAQs page also notes that Project Baseline members will have the option to share personal health data with the company team in an encrypted database.
Once an eligible user completes the required paperwork and screenings, they will learn whether or not they qualify for free COVID-19 testing. The testing is geared towards individuals who have not yet developed symptoms. Project Baseline users who exhibit symptoms such as a “severe cough, shortness of breath, fever, or other concerning symptoms” are recommended to seek medical attention rather than advice through the site.
Per the initial survey page, the program is intended to connect individuals with access to COVID-19 risk screening. It is “not intended” for individuals experiencing symptoms associated with the coronavirus.
The website is not currently available for U.S. citizens nationwide. The program will hopefully expand nationwide and even internationally in the coming weeks, and participation is free.
Trump on Friday said the website would “be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past,” but Google engineers say it’s still in “early stages.”
Verily and Project Baseline have partnerships with Pfizer, the Duke University School of Medicine, the Mayo Clinic, Stanford Medicine and the American Heart Association, among other health care organizations.
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