To use the feature, users can search ‘covid-19 vaccines near me’ on Google Search, Maps, and Assistant.
Google has announced that Google Maps, Search, and Google Assistant will show more information about vaccine availability and appointments in India. The update will be rolled out this week, and over 13,000 locations will show vaccine availability-related information powered by real-time data from the Cowin APIs. Users can find information such as availability of appointment slots at each centre, vaccines and doses offered (Dose 1 or Dose 2), pricing (Paid or Free), and links to the Cowin website for booking. Google had previously updated Maps and Assistant to show COVID-19 testing and vaccine centres in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
In a blog post, Google says that vaccine availability-related details would automatically show up when users search for vaccine centres near them, or in any specific area – across Google Search, Maps and 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 over the development, Hema Budaraju, Director at Google Search 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 it will continue to partner closely with the Cowin team to extend this functionality to all vaccination centres across India.
To use the feature, users can search ‘covid-19 vaccines near me’ on Google Search, Maps, and Assistant. Users must also ensure the app is updated to enjoy benefits. We were able to spot the feature on the Google Search web client. Apart from the direction, users can view ‘vaccines offered here,’ appointment, and price.
