Coronavirus Testing Site Developed by Google to Help Screen for COVID-19 President Donald Trump announced the coronavirus outbreak at a press conference on Friday He also declared a national emergency

The website will encourage people to complete a questionnaire about their symptoms and, if necessary, direct them to drive-through testing locations that the US government plans to roll out

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet (Google's parent company), said in a leaked memo exposed by CNBC that both Google and Verily, Alphabet's life sciences company, will partner in an effort to help test for COVID-19

Trump, facing backlash for his lackluster response to the COVID-19 outbreak, said Google has 1,700 engineers working on the project Vice President Mike Pence added that the website would be launched on Sunday

In a subsequent statement, however, Google indicated that the project is not as far along as the Trump administration suggested Google said that "Verily is in the early stages of development and will be deployed for testing in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time"

The new coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has infected more than 142,100 people worldwide, including more than 5,300 deaths, as tracked on the Coronavirus Map In the United States, more than 1,875 cases and 41 deaths have been confirmed in various states from Washington to New Jersey [The outbreak has caused chaos and panic around the world Entire countries were put on lockdown in Italy; the US imposed a coronavirus travel ban on most European countries; major events, including sports leagues and tournaments such as the NBA, NHL, and March Madness, were postponed or canceled; and the US and Europe were forced to suspend all travel and tourism to the United States Movie releases were also postponed or canceled, including "No Time to Die," "Wild Speed 9," and "Mulan [13] [14] And many companies, including Google, ordered employees to work from home to aid in containment, as social distancing is one of the key tips for keeping the coronavirus safe