Facebook has launched a new interactive map that shows which Covid-19 symptoms are being experienced by the people in different counties of the US.

On April 20, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company has launched an interactive map "based on aggregate data from the opt-in survey [they're] running with researchers at Carnegie Mellon" that shows which Covid-19 symptoms are being experienced where in the US.

The map breaks up the country into counties; so far, users can see in which region symptoms are being reported and which symptoms are being experienced - right now, however, flu symptoms are the only symptoms that can be displayed.

Zuckerberg states that the map will be updated on a daily basis to reflect information as close to real-time as possible, as such data can be used to help health and governmental officials to decide where “they allocate scarce resources like ventilators and PPE, and eventually to decide when it is safe to start re-opening different places”.

The surveys used to create this map will roll out globally this week so that Covid-19 symptom maps will be available across the world in regions where the company operates. Facebook is on the lookout for more partners to get additional Covid-19 information from.

The US map is accessible to everyone today with more being created as data is collected.

 - AFP Relaxnews