While it’s only been more than a month since Google announced visual improvements for Maps, there’s another new nifty addition being made to supplement the importance of the product itself.
Published recently on their blog, Maps just got an upgrade giving users the opportunity to see COVID-19 cases. This will greatly help in the decision making process for those who use it to navigate their own city or country
Visually track COVID-19 trends geographically
It’s quite easy to access the info. Users will just need to toggle the “COVID-19 info” layer from the top-right hand corner (same option where you can switch between terrain and satellite views).
Users will see a 7-day average of cases per 100,000 based on the area they’re viewing. This will be accompanied with a label that indicates whether the cases are increasing or decreasing. Color coding also helps you easily distinguish the density of new cases in an area.
Important piece of info to be aware of is that the cases data is visible across all the countries worldwide including the Middle East and North Africa region. Depending on the location, you may only see country-level data. Some places may provide it on a mor granular level that can include state/province, county, and city-level.
To ensure authenticity of the data being used to visually overlay the COVID-19 trends, it’s pulled from multiple authoritative sources, including Johns Hopkins, the New York Times, and Wikipedia. These sources get data from public health organizations like the World Health Organization, government health ministries, along with state and local health agencies and hospitals.
Make sure you’re running the latest version of Maps on Android/iOS/iPadOS devices. Desktop users can also see it via any compatible web browser.
