n a bid to spread awareness about the coronavirus pandemic, Google in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has updated its homepage with Do The Five message that will impart coronavirus-related information.
When you open the Google homepage, you will find an alert right below the search bar that reads: DO THE FIVE. Help stop coronavirus. If you click on the alert you will find five basic tips to combat coronavirus listed in a dialogue box.
The five tips listed out by Google are as follows:
1. HANDS Wash them often
2. ELBOW Cough into it
3. FACE Don't touch it
4. FEET Stay more than 3 feet apart
5. FEEL sick? Stay home
Below the listicle, there is a More Info button that will redirect users to the official website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
The website consists of helpline numbers for coronavirus, statewise helpline numbers for coronavirus along with the helpline email id. There is also a link to the advisory on social distancing provided right below the helpline numbers. Special guidelines are also issued on Dead Body Management, in case a patient dies due to COVID-19. The website also carries several preventive measures and guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research.
The website also provides a statewise list of confirmed cases of coronavirus, the number of deaths caused due to the infection and the number of patients who were cured.
So if we go by the data provided by the Ministry of Health, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases as of March 19 is around 148. Three patients have succumbed to the disease in Delhi, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. Whereas 14 patients across India have recovered from the COVID-19 and one of them has also migrated.
Google had first implemented the "DO THE FIVE" feature in the US in collaboration with the US government and the World Health Organization.
Talking about the same Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in his blog: "We’re promoting the Do the Five campaign to raise awareness of simple measures people can take to slow the spread of the disease, according to the WHO. In the first 24 hours, these tips have already been seen by millions in the U.S. We’ve added more useful information to our COVID-19 SOS Alerts, including links to national health authority sites and a map of affected areas from the WHO."