Facebook on Friday announced that it will be teaming up with the Indian government to roll out a new feature on the Facebook app available in Indian region where people will be able to find and contact their nearest vaccination centres. This feature will help reduce a lot of chaos as people will be more knowledgeable about the vaccination centres near them and the kind of vaccine they are providing.
Facebook has also announced earlier that it will be granting $10 Million for emergency response efforts for the increasing COVID-19 situation in India.
The announcement was made public by a post by Facebook on Facebook itself. It said- “Partnering with the Government of India, Facebook will begin rolling out its Vaccine Finder tool on the Facebook mobile app in India available in 17 languages to help people identify places nearby to get the vaccine,”
“The information is accessible and prominent on Facebook’s COVID-19 Information Center and in Feed. On Instagram, we are promoting this information via Guides in Explore,” said Facebook.
The database for this feature is provided to Facebook by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
Facebook said that in this tool options for walk-in will also be shown (for 46 years and above) along with a link to register for the vaccination on the Co-Win website and to schedule a vaccination appointment.
Facebook announced that it will be partnering up with major organizations such as United Way, Swasth, Hemkunt Foundation, I Am Gurgaon, Project Mumbai and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). These partnerships will help to deploy the $10 Million worth of funds announced by Facebook to help boost the quantity of critical medical supplies which contains over 5,000 oxygen concentrators and other life-saving equipment like ventilators, BiPAP machines and to increase hospital bed capacity.
The social media giant is also supporting the NGOs and UN agencies in the country with ad credits and insights to reach to the majority of people and users on Facebook with information regarding COVID-19 vaccination and preventive health information and guidelines.
The new feature of Facebook will also be providing health resources to people from UNICEF, India about when to seek for emergency care and how to tackle and manage mild COVID-19 symptoms at home itself.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become life savers in such hard times that connect those looking for oxygen cylinders, hospital beds, plasma donors, and ventilators with possible donors.
Twitter too has set up help for Covis situation in India. “We have also built a series of Twitter Moments to help you get the facts from the most reliable sources, because we know not all the information you see on the service is credible. These dedicated Moments about vaccine safety, how to stay safe and more, include detailed and accredited information from organisations like the MoHFW and World Health Organization, among others,” said Twitter
