On Monday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company has launched an interactive map “based on aggregate data from the opt-in survey [they’re] running with researchers at Carnegie Mellon” that shows which COVID-19 symptoms are being experienced where in the United States.
The map breaks up the country into counties; so far, users can see in which region symptoms are being reported and which symptoms are being experienced — right now, however, flu symptoms are the only symptoms that can be displayed.
Zuckerberg states that the map will be updated on a daily basis to reflect information as close to real-time as possible, as such data can be used to help health and government officials to decide where “they allocate scarce resources like ventilators and [personal protective equipment], and eventually to decide when it is safe to start re-opening different places.”
The surveys used to create this map will roll out globally this week so that COVID-19 symptom maps will be available across the world in regions where the company operates. Facebook is on the lookout for more partners to get additional COVID-19 information from.
The U.S. map is accessible to everyone today with more being created as data is collected. RGA
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