Google Maps, Search, and Assistant Now Offer Information on COVID-19 Vaccine Availability

Google has announced that Google Maps, Search and the Google Assistant will display more information on vaccine availability and appointments in India. The update will roll out this week and more than 13,000 locations will display information related to vaccine availability driven by real-time data from Cowin APIs. Users can find information such as the availability of appointment spaces at each centre, vaccines and doses offered (dose 1 or dose 2), prices (paid or free) and links to the Cowin website for reservations. Google had previously updated Maps and Assistant to show COVID-19 vaccine and testing centres in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

In a blog post, Google says that details related to vaccine availability would automatically appear when users search for vaccine centres near them, or in any specific area, on Google Search, Maps, and the Google Assistant. In addition to English, users can also search in eight Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, and Marathi. Speaking more about development, Hema Budaraju, Google Search Director, said: "As people continue to seek information related to the pandemic to manage their lives around it, we remain committed to finding and sharing authoritative and timely information across our platforms." The company adds that it will continue to partner closely with the Cowin team to extend this functionality to all vaccination centres in India.

To use the feature, users can search for "covid-19 vaccines near me" in Google Search, Maps, and the Assistant. Users must also ensure that the application is up to date to enjoy the benefits. We were able to detect the function in the Google search web client. In addition to the address, users can see the "vaccines offered here", the appointment and the price. Tags: Google, Google Maps, Google Assistant, covid-19 vaccine