Google is postponing the national rollout of a website with information about the coronavirus until later this week, an official told The Hill on Tuesday.
The launch of website — and what exactly the website would do — has been mired in confusion since late last week.
President Trump in a speech Friday claimed that Google was developing a screening website that would “be very quickly done.”
Shortly after those remarks, Verily, another company under the umbrella of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said that it was “developing a tool to help triage individuals for Covid-19 testing” that was “in the early stages of development” for the Bay Area.
Google on Sunday announced it was in fact working on a nationwide site “dedicated to COVID-19 education, prevention, and local resources.”
That national website launch had originally been scheduled for Monday.
Now the tech giant is delaying the launch to fill out features of the website.
“Verily launched a pilot website late Sunday to counties in the Bay Area, and is working with authorities to scale this effort further,” the Google official told The Hill.
“With local and national guidance evolving rapidly, Google will continue working with relevant agencies and authorities to roll out a website later this week that will surface authoritative information for people in the U.S., including on screening and testing,” the official said.
According to Google, the website will focus on surfacing best practices and information from authoritative sources. Trump on Friday had characterized it as a national screening program.