Google Maps and Covid-19: How to Resist the Pandemic — Joy Dev Blog

What are other measures to fight against Covid-19? Read in our new article!

With the beginning of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic more and more platforms and resources started to add to their functional opportunities for the fight against coronavirus. We have already written which developments were already created in medicine and virtual tourism. However, there are many other projects in development.

Google Maps against Crowding

The biggest corporation Google decided to expand the functionality of its popular service Google Maps. It announced adding additional information about public places and enterprises in October. Now, Google Maps shows how busy and crowded some stores, parks, or restaurants are.

The service already had a similar function. However, it showed the busy hours of a place. So, the users could choose the time when it would be more or less free. But the new function is aimed at the fight against Covid-19. For example, if you are going to the nearest grocery, you’ll see how many people there are at a given moment. According to the company, this function shoes the most demanded places. Such as beaches, groceries, gas stations, laundries, and drug stores.

The function is planned to be released soon. As Google states it’s just needed to go to Google Maps to see the busyness of a place. After that, you’ll see the popped-up information, which will show “Not busy”, “Busier than Usual”, “As busy as it gets”.

Actual Information about Covid-19 patients

Moreover, the service of Google Maps provides new information about the quantity of Covid-19 patients. You can see the statistics for every chosen region that shows the number of sick people for every 100 000 people within 7 days. Also, it shows the tag representing the virus dynamics. Whether the amount is growing or not.

The data is provided for 240 countries by several reliable sources. In particular, the New York Times, Johns Hopkins, and Wikipedia. They get the data from the Worldwide Health Organization and local medical institutions.

Apps helping to fight against Covid-19

At the given moment there are many mobile applications developed for fighting against the coronavirus. For example, we have already told you about the app that allows tracking your contacts and getting notifications whether some of them contracted Covid-19. Read about other state and non-profit projects aimed at supporting the psychological state of people during the pandemic.

Originally published at https://joy-dev.com/google-maps-and-covid-19-how-to-resist-the-pandemic/ on November 1, 2020.