Google was caught off guard and issued a clarification after President Trump claimed 1,700 engineers were working on a website to help manage the coronavirus pandemic.
During a Friday news conference at the White House Rose Garden, Trump thanked Google and said that the technology company is “helping to develop a website … To determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location.”
Google Communications released a statement on Twitter attributed to Verily, which is also owned by Alphabet, that said Verily was in the “early stages” of a website designed for California’s Bay Area. The statement said the company hopes to expand beyond there in the future but did not provide any specific date.
“We are developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing. Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time,” the statement read. “We appreciate the support of government officials and industry partners and thank the Google engineers who have volunteered to be part of this effort.”
“We appreciate the support of government officials and industry partners and thank the Google engineers who have volunteered to be part of this effort.”
— Google Communications (@Google_Comms) March 13, 2020
Carolyn Wang, who runs communications for Verily, told the Verge that the “triage website” was originally designed to be only visited by healthcare workers and not the public. But, after Trump’s remarks, Wang said those plans have changed to allow the public to visit the website. Wang said the tool would only direct visitors to “pilot sites” for testing in California, noting she hopes to expand it out of the state “over time.”
During the news conference, Trump also took a jab at the Obama administration’s 2013 rollout of healthcare.gov, which experienced a number of technical difficulties and delays when it was made public. Trump said the new site was going to be “very quickly done, unlike websites of the past.”
Trump declared a national emergency at the news conference as confirmed cases and deaths of COVID-19 spread across the country. There have been at least 2,110 cases in 48 states, and at least 48 people have died.
