Facebook debuts new features to help people find the Covid-19 vaccine | Health

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a prepared statement posted on a social media platform Monday, “Everyone is easy as many countries are moving to vaccination for all adults. We are working on a tool that will allow us to get vaccinated. “

“First, we’ll launch a tool that shows when and where we can get vaccinated and provides a link to make an appointment,” Zuckerberg wrote in a post. “It’s in the Covid Information Center and will be shown directly to people in the news feed.”

The Covid Information Center was also posted on Instagram, and Zuckerberg said the company “shows it to people prominently there as well.”

Zuckerberg added that the company “is working with health authorities and governments to expand WhatsApp chatbots and help people register for vaccines.”

To help people find vaccines, Facebook has partnered with Boston Children’s Hospital to launch a locator tool in the United States. This tool connects Facebook users to nearby Covid-19 vaccine access locations, vaccination site opening hours, contact information, and links for bookings.

“You should be able to search on the Facebook app. Type” Covid-19 “or” Covid-19 vaccine “and this will take you to the Covid-19 Information Center on Facebook, which includes nearby vaccination sites. There is a new tool that allows you to search for, “Facebook Health Officer Kang-Xing Jin told CNN on Sunday.

Vaccine locator tool Blood donation function Facebook was launched in 2019 to help users find a place to donate blood in their area and be notified when a nearby blood donation center is needed, Jin said.

“US partners are the first in the country to increase blood donors by 19%,” he said. “So our hope is to support the deployment of the vaccine here.”

The location identified in the new Covid-19 Vaccine Finder is from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccine finder, A web-based system of vaccination providers. The tool was released only in the United States, but Facebook has announced plans to expand it to other countries as the vaccine becomes more widely available, and the tool will be supported in 71 different languages.

“It was originally on Facebook, but I hope to bring it to Instagram soon,” Jin said.

For now, the Covid-19 Information Center itself has been brought to Instagram and “contains a lot of information on common vaccine questions,” Jin said. “And it’s available live today.”

The· Covid-19 Information CenterAccording to Facebook, the portal, originally launched on the Facebook platform in March last year, is now accessible to all Instagram users around the world.

Users click on the Covid-19 Information Center portal to see Covid-19 information from the local Minister of Health and the World Health Organization.

In the coming weeks, social media posts about the Covid-19 vaccine will generally be automatically labeled to people with the Covid-19 Information Center.

“This will generally apply to all posts about the Covid-19 vaccine,” said Jin. “This label basically provides a link to the Covid-19 Information Center, where people can go to get answers to common questions.”

Facebook also announced on Monday that Instagram released a new “sticker” about the Covid-19 vaccine that users can use in their Instagram stories. For example, if the sticker says “Get vaccinated” and has a heart symbol on it.

Meanwhile, new developments are underway on Facebook’s other platform, WhatsApp. Facebook provides a messaging app as a way for health authorities and governments to share Covid-19 vaccine information with users.

For example, the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, announced last week that WhatsApp will be the official channel to notify citizens when it is their turn to receive a vaccine.

“WhatsApp is a free service that is often cheaper than SMS and text messages, so it can reduce barriers in several ways,” says Jin.

“After all, the government uses all communication channels to reach people with relevant information, both online and offline, and is doing its best to support these efforts and choices. “