Google Search, Maps, and Assistant to now offer detailed info on COVID-19 vaccine availability

Google on Wednesday said users will be able to get more information about vaccine availability and appointments for over 13,000 locations in the country across its three products — Search, Maps, and Assistant — starting this week.

The information is powered by real-time data from the CoWIN APIs and includes details like availability of appointment slots at each centre, vaccines, and doses offered (Dose 1 or Dose 2), pricing (paid or free), and link to the CoWIN website for booking, a statement said.

The information will automatically show up when users search for vaccine centres near them or in any specific area across Google Search, Maps, and Google Assistant, it added.

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Besides English, users can also search in eight Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, and Marathi.

Google said it will continue to partner closely with the CoWIN team to extend this functionality to all vaccination centres across India.

In March this year, Google started showing information on COVID-19 vaccination centres, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

"As people continue to seek information related to the pandemic to manage their lives around it, we remain committed to finding and sharing authoritative and timely information across our platforms, said Hema Budaraju, Director of Google Search, said.

With 1.33 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses being administered on Tuesday — the highest ever in a single day — the cumulative doses given in the country has exceeded 65.41 crores, according to the Union Health Ministry data.