Google to provide COVID vaccine info at 13,000 locations in India

Starting this week, Google will provide information about Covid-19 vaccine centres, availability, and price through its Search, Maps and Google Assistant tools.

The search giant has tied up with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and using COWIN APIs, it will provide information about vaccines at 13,000 locations.

Users will be able to find the vaccine centre nearest to them by searching for ‘Covid vaccine near me’. Price, if available will be shown.

Also read: COVID vaccine affecting menstruation cycle?

To book an appointment at the centre, Google will provide a link to the Cowin website where users will have to fill in the mobile number and fill in the OTP.

These details will be available on Google Search for Covid vaccines.

• Availability of appointment slots at each center
• Vaccines and doses offered (Dose 1 or Dose 2)
• Expectations for pricing (Paid or Free)
• Link to the CoWIN website for booking

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had tweeted about Google’s new feature.

The @MoHFW_INDIA has taken yet another significant initiative to enhance access to #COVID19 vaccine:

🔎 Search 'covid vaccine near me' on Google

✅ Check availability of slots & more

💉 Use 'Book Appointment' feature to book a slot

📖 More details: https://t.co/zsI9A5fkCp

— Dr Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) September 1, 2021

Interestingly, Google will provide the information in English, Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, and Marathi.

“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,” Hema Budaraju, director of Google Search, said in a blog post.