How volunteers from tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Google built a coronavirus-tracking site in six days

  • 📰 CNBC
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 38 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 18%
  • Publisher: 72%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

How volunteers from Amazon, Apple and Google built a coronavirus-tracking site in six days

The idea started when Prem Ramaswami, the head of product at's Sidewalk Labs, and his wife, started feeling sick more than a week ago. When he tried to get a test for the coronavirus, his doctor told him that would not be possible. According to Ramaswami, he was denied access to the test because he hadn't been in touch with anyone who had tested positive.

But Ramaswami realized he couldn't do it on his own. So he pulled together a group of friends and acquaintances from the tech world to help out. Employees from Apple, Amazon, MongoDB, CloudFlare, Alphabet and other tech companies agreed to build the site, but defer to the public health experts on the content.

If they can get enough people to use the site -- and the goal is to reach 100,000 users -- they hope to fill in some of the gaps in reporting due to the lack of testing. Those who are feeling sick are prompted to describe their symptoms, such as fever, a cough, or shortness of breath. They are also asked if they've traveled recently, and if they've been in direct contact with anyone diagnosed with COVID-19.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Looks crappy compared to other ones...

Probably should have used this team for the Obamacare website.

SurveillanceCapitalism

China built it in one day. No surprise!

👋👋👋👋👍🏻👍🏻

America has the best n brightest !

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 12. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines