US President Donald Trump yesterday announced that internet giant Alphabet is creating a website where people will be able to check whether they have symptoms of Covid-19.

Verily Life Sciences, once a project in a Google X lab devoted to “moonshot” projects and is now its own health business unit, is testing a “tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing”, Google confirmed on Twitter.

“Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time,” said the tweet, referring to San Francisco and its surrounding communities.

Trump thanked Google while declaring a national state of emergency due to the deadly pandemic.

The tech giant is helping develop a website “to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location”, said the president.

Google has a large team of engineers devoted to the project, and has made significant progress, added Trump.

“Our overriding goal is to stop the spread of the virus and help all Americans impacted by this.

“Again, we don’t want everybody taking this test. It is totally unnecessary. And this will pass.”

A launch date for the website should be known by late tomorrow, said US Vice-President Mike Pence.

“You can go to the website, type in your symptoms, and be given direction whether or not a test is indicated.”

The site will then direct users to locations where they can obtain drive-through testing, he said.

San Francisco has begun setting up temporary, drive-through coronavirus testing locations. – AFP, March 14, 2020.