Apple, in the past couple of weeks, has been upping up its efforts to help fight the Covid-19 pandemic. In another one of such efforts, the company will soon start showing the Covid-19 testing centres to the Apple Maps users.
According to a report by 9To5 Mac, Apple has launched a special portal for hospitals, healthcare providers, labs, and other businesses to register as Covid-19 testing centres. The company will then review these applications and when approved, they will appear on Apple Maps as the coronavirus testing locations.
“As a healthcare provider, lab, or other business, follow these steps to submit information on COVID-19 testing locations that Apple may display to its users,” Apple wrote on its website.
As per the report, the locations will be highlighted on Maps using an asterix sign and will show details such as name of the place, associated healthcare provider, and the contact details of the website. Apple Maps will also show details about the type of testing location — lab or a hospital — the highlighted centre is. Additionally, Maps will show if the highlighted Covid-19 testing site requires a doctor’s referral or a prior appointment.
Notably, the report comes shortly after Apple announced that it was joining hands with Google to use Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies across the globe to reduce the spread of Covid-19. The two companies will release APIs in May that will enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. “These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores,” Apple wrote in a press release.
After that the two companies will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms.