Trump says Google is building a coronavirus website to speed up testing for COVID-19

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Friday afternoon in response to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. He also said that Google was helping to build a website to help people assess their symptoms and find testing centers.

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Debbie Birx presented a flow chart that showed how the website would work. The first step is to screen for symptoms. Based on the results of those questions, a person could be directed to a drive-through testing center. Birx said that test results could be ready in 72 hours. 

There was no mention of the URL for the website or when it would be ready. Trump said that Google has 1,700 engineers working on the project. 

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Lab Corp and Quest Diagnostics have tests for COVID-19, but as of Thursday, a doctor must request the test. Birx said the government response team is working to automate the testing process to make the process much faster. 

Vice president Mike Pence said later in the press conference that 15,000 and 20,000 tests per day could be performed. 

Overall, details were sparse. TechRepublic reached out to Google for more information and this story will be updated. 

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