Stay home, save lives: Google Doodle shares tips to prevent spread of coronavirus

Highlighting the importance of staying indoors to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus infection, search engine giant Google, on Friday, shared the message of "stay home, save lives" with a colourful doodle on its homepage.

The doodle showed animated letters of the word "Google" engaged in different activities that one can take up within the confines of their homes.

ALSO READ

Coronavirus: Google pledges $6.5M to fact-checkers fighting misinformation and fake news

While one immersed itself in reading, another played a guitar, and some talked to each other over a phone call.

Clicking on the doodle redirects the user to another page that lists coronavirus tips.

"As COVID-19 continues to impact communities around the world, help stop the spread by following these steps," the page reads.

The pandemic has claimed 56 lives in India, while 2,301 people have been tested positive.

The webpage lists "Stay home", "Keep a safe distance", "Wash hands often", "Cover your cough", and "Sick? Call the helpline" as the steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

It also features a list of Dos and Don'ts.

"Wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds, with soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub. Cover your nose and mouth with a disposable tissue or flexed elbow when you cough or sneeze. Avoid close contact (1 meter or 3 feet) with people who are unwell. Stay home and self-isolate from others in the household if you feel unwell," reads the list of precautions to be taken.

Further it also suggested not to "touch your eyes, nose, or mouth if your hands are not clean".

The webpage also shows an interactive map of the world with realtime coronavirus statistics.

Google also mentioned that it will publish location data from its users around the world to allow governments to gauge the effectiveness of social distancing measures put in place to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reports on users' movements in 131 countries will be made available on a special website and will "chart movement trends over time by geography," according to a post on one of the company's blogs.

Trends will display "a percentage point increase or decrease in visits" to locations like parks, shops, homes and places of work, not "the absolute number of visits," said the post, signed by Jen Fitzpatrick, who leads Google Maps, and the company's chief health officer Karen DeSalvo.

"We hope these reports will help support decisions about how to manage the COVID-19 pandemic," they said.

(Edited by Kanishk Singh)