Google searches for coronavirus will now show you safety tips

Google searches for coronavirus will now show you safety tips
By Jay Peters

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Searching Google for “coronavirus” will now send users to a curated search results page with resources from the World Health Organization, safety tips, and news updates, Google and the WHO announced today. This effort, which is just one of Google’s SOS Alerts, is now live.

Google also announced a $250,000 direct grant from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic arm, that will go to the Chinese Red Cross to help support coronavirus relief efforts.

To help support relief efforts, @Googleorg issued a $250,000 direct grant to the Chinese Red Cross. Additionally we launched an internal campaign inviting Googlers to donate. So far, https://t.co/ldmgae16C7 and Googlers have raised over $800K USD (3.5M rmb).

— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) January 30, 2020

The WHO declared today that the coronavirus outbreak is a global public health emergency. Since the outbreak started in December, there have been over 8,000 confirmed cases and more than 170 deaths. The first person-to-person transmission of coronavirus was reported in the US earlier today; as of January 29th, five people in the US have been confirmed to have the disease and 92 people are under investigation, according to the CDC. Multiple airlines have suspended or canceled flights in the near future as a safety precaution, and some companies, including Google and Tesla, have closed down their offices or operations in China due to the outbreak.

We’re tracking the coronavirus outbreak closely at The Verge. We’ve got an explainer about it right here, and you can read all of our coronavirus coverage here.

January 31, 2020 at 01:18AM
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