Don’t leave home without it!
When you want to travel by car you unfortunately need to find directions to your destination that is least affected by COVID-19. Google in co-operation with the New York Times now provides a real time synopsis of Covid infection areas and rates highlighting areas you might want to consider avoiding.
The Covid-19 layer, and alerts, are very beneficial. They can help you prepare accordingly to impacted transit services, safety mandates and/or whether you will be required to wear a mask indoors.
In addition Google has introduced driving alerts to notify you about COVID-19 checkpoints and restrictions along your route, for example crossing in and out of international borders (Canada, Mexico and the U.S.).
As a sad consideration, when navigating to medical facilities or COVID-19 testing centers, they will display an alert reminding you to verify eligibility and facility guidelines to avoid being turned away or causing additional strain on the local healthcare system. Google is now providing alerts for medical facilities that can or cannot accept Covid-19 patients. As we know this is exceptionally helpful in areas that are suffering from infection surges.
How do you do it: Go to Google Maps and look for the “layers” button that will bring up a second panel. There you will find the button for Covid-19. Hit it and you are all set.
