New Google Maps feature will show you COVID-19 cases in an area

Despite all the steps taken by the government, the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise in India and other parts of the world. To address this and ensure that people stay away from contamination zones, tech giant Google on Wednesday announced a new feature for Google Maps.  

The feature, known as 'COVID layer' will show users important information like number of Covid-19 cases in an area which will help the users to take decisions on whether to go to that particular area or not. Google will roll out the new feature in its latest update this week on both Android and iOS. 

How will COVID layer work? 

The users will be able to see data in Google Maps after opening the app, the tech giant explained in a blog post. It said that users will have the option to tap on the layers button on the top right hand corner of the screen and click on the “Covid-19 info". The next page will show a seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people for the area of the map you’re looking at, and a label that indicates whether the cases are trending up or down. 

Google will also add colour coding feature which will help the users to distinguish the density of new cases in an area. Trending case data is visible at the country level for all 220 countries and territories that Google Maps supports, along with state or province, county, and city-level data where available. 

The data will be collected from different sources, including Johns Hopkins, the New York Times, and Wikipedia. It said that these sources get data from public health organizations like the World Health Organization, government health ministries, along with state and local health agencies and hospitals.