Microsoft launches dedicated tracker for COVID-19 outbreak
In order to keep the general public informed about the global outbreak of coronavirus disease COVID-19, Microsoft's Bing team has launched a dedicated online tracker. The portal offers a way to check the current scale of the pandemic, complete with the number of infections and deaths it has caused around the world. Here's all about the new tool.
Bing COVID-19 tracker: What it offers?
The Bing-powered COVID-19 tracker, accessible via bing.com/covid, is pretty similar to the one offered by John Hopkins University. It offers global and country-specific infection stats to show the scale of the pandemic as well as the situation prevailing in each individual nation, be it Italy, China, or India. There is a separate tab showing the number of infection-related deaths worldwide and in each country.
Coronavirus-related news from individual nations
Along with infection and death stats, the Bing tracker also shows coronavirus-related news from every location. For instance, if you use the portal to check the number of cases in India, it will also show the latest news updates from the country - all related to the outbreak of coronavirus. The same feature works for all states in the US.
Up-to-date information sourced from government organizations
The idea of providing region-specific coronavirus news makes sense for Bing, which already serves news through its search engine. As for the infection stats, all the numbers are regularly updated and aggregated from authoritative sources like the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
Portal created over last week, says Microsoft
"Lots of Bing folks worked (from home) this past week to create a mapping and authoritative news resource for COVID-19 information," Michael Schechter, the General Manager for Bing Growth and Distribution at Microsoft, said in a statement.
Google is also working on a coronavirus portal
The tracker from Microsoft comes just a few days after President Trump announced that the US government is working with Google on a coronavirus site. In all, two portals are being developed: one for screening patients, which is being developed and tested by Alphabet's Verily, and the other for providing Americans information on coronavirus symptoms, risks, and testing centers.
So far, COVID-19 has killed over 6,500 people worldwide
Since it began spreading from the Chinese city of Wuhan, COVID-19 has infected nearly 1,70,000 people and killed more than 6,500 around the world. In India, 110 have been infected by the disease.
